Overwhelmingly, the news about college courses is bad these days — new offerings that are all about grievances rather than knowledge. We’re always reading about some course or even major that’s designed to get students to look upon our history and institutions with hatred, which is a big part of the way “progressives” pave the way for the transformation of America.

But every now and then, something good comes along. In today’s Martin Center article, Todd Williams, president of Cairn University in Pennsylvania, explains his school’s new, mandatory civics course.

He writes:

There are not nearly enough institutions of higher education that require such a course for all students. Many of those that do are private colleges or universities of a more conservative stripe, culturally and philosophically. Cairn University is such a school, yet it does not possess the characteristics of those institutions that are openly and assertively politicized on either the right or the left. Cairn does not publicly embrace or endorse candidates or elected officials, does not leverage students for political or social activism, and does not publicly criticize or champion today’s partisan political players. This kind of politicization is not the intent of the university and did not drive the creation of a civics requirement (or the content of the course itself). Understanding the actual how, why, and what of Cairn’s move may help readers grasp the value and necessity of such a course in higher education.

Other colleges and universities should follow Cairn’s lead. At most, of course, activist faculty will throw a tantrum because they don’t want students hearing anything but bad stuff about America — not how, e.g., the Founders sought to protect liberty by putting limits on governmental power.

I like Williams’s conclusion:

America’s fifth president, James Monroe, once wrote that “the question at the end of each educational step is not simply ‘What has the student learned?’ but ‘What has the student become?’” Students becoming informed and responsible citizens is a noble end, and civics instruction at Cairn may prove to be an effective step toward it.