Starting with Kafka and Darwin
Message to Freshmen: Let's Start with Kafka and Darwin
http://www.mindingthecampus.com/originals/2010/06/message_to_freshmen_lets_start.html
Colleges must counter the experience of conventional high school education in the United States, where learning is little more than a standardized test-driven chore with utilitarian benefits. In college, students should discover that most of the important writings and discoveries they will study were not generated for their benefit, but rather came into being in order to illuminate and improve life. It is precisely the connection between learning and living that justifies the life of the mind and makes study and inquiry a treasured form of human activity and among the most rewarding
(via Instapaper)