My name is Paul Boyer. I have spent over forty years writing about American higher education. My books and articles argue that a college education is worthwhile and that universities are a vital public resource.
However, this project grew out of a question I posed to myself over a decade ago: Why do scholars of education, such as myself, never (or hardly ever) acknowledge learning that takes place outside of universities? Why is so little effort made to understand and celebrate all the ways adults grow intellectually on their own, and in other settings?
From this nettlesome question, Perpetual Student was born. Its purpose is to explore how scholarship is sustained in everyday life–not as a profession, not for a diploma–and investigate how societies can either strengthen or the inhibit the life of the mind.
To do this, it ranges widely through time and across cultures: from Medieval Paris to Fin de siècle Vienna; from Indigenous communities of the American west to Greenwich Village; from your local library to the Internet. It considers a vast cast of characters: philosophers, artists, and academics, as well as monks, farmers, and motorcycle mechanics. Some names are familiar–Emerson, Montaigne, Adler–but many others were new to me when I began my work, and may be new to you.
Perpetual Student is not an attack on universities. It has no interest in stoking anger or resentment. But it does argue that, to capture the full richness–and deeper meaning–of the scholarly life, we must look beyond the nation’s colleges and universities. Those who seek wisdom for its own sake have much to tell us about what it means to be wise.
Thank you for joining me in this investigation.
Paul Boyer
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Perpetual Student 