A new report indicates that a surprising number of college students are seeking spiritual answers to the questions in their lives.
The key results according to an article in USA Today are that students are increasingly looking for ways that help them discover their own beliefs, help them to become more caring to others and “develop an ecumenical worldview”.
The article reports:
“The findings surprised and delighted the study’s authors, Alexander and Helen Astin, retired UCLA professors who are engaged in a multi-year study of how the college experience influences spiritual development. It is funded by the John Templeton Foundation.
The Astins argue that higher education has been neglecting the ‘inner’ development of students, such as their emotional maturity, self-understanding and spirituality.
Now, their most recent study, based on a survey of more than 14,000 college students on 136 campuses at the start of their freshman year in fall 2004 and again at the end of their junior year in spring 2007, appears to challenge some common assumptions.”
Apparently very few of the faculty at the colleges and universities where the students are studying will invite the sorts of discussions the students are seeking. Only twenty percent of the faculty encourage the desired discussions according to student reports.
Read the rest here.