In Northern Virginia, DC, and other cities around the country, a different kind of education is taking place in bars, cafés, and breweries — one that doesn’t require thousands of dollars in tuition. Profs and Pints is a local organization that stages casual lectures, giving professors and experts a chance to teach to crowds outside of a traditional college setting.
Connecting Students and Teachers
Founder and CEO Peter Schmidt says he got the idea after being laid off as a journalist in 2017. After 30 years of covering education, including issues like rising prices and a decline in tenured positions for professors, he saw the need to connect students and teachers without all the barriers attached to formal education.
“I knew that there was a kind of broader division between higher education and the public. Public support for higher education had been declining,” Schmidt says. “A lot of people just felt alienated from higher ed institutions and to some degree, expertise, because they had been shut out of them for financial reasons.”
The concept, he says, was to create an educational atmosphere that was “something close to what Socrates did: People surrounding the scholar and throwing that scholar a few bucks to hear what they have to say.”
He kicked the project off in 2017, and it’s been growing ever since. Today, more than 950 Profs and Pints talks have taken place in metropolitan areas like DC, Philadelphia, Boston, and Baltimore.
A Win-Win Concept
It’s a win all around: Professors get a captive audience. Students get to learn something new without the stress of a traditional classroom. And host venues — typically bars and brew pubs — get to fill seats on nights that might otherwise be slow.
“The professors love it because it’s an incredibly intensive, engaged audience,” Schmidt says. “They’re not looking out at a bunch of college students who are there because their attendance is going to be part of their grade. They’re looking out at people who want to hear what they have to say. The audience members are all there to learn from each other.”
Talks often bring crowds of around 70 or 80 students. In the DC area, they frequently draw as many as 100 or 200.
These talks cover a vast range of topics including science, folklore, and pop culture. “Some of the talks are very serious, some of them are very light. Some of the speakers are very funny, some are very businesslike,” Schmidt says.
Upcoming NoVA talks include “Unmasking Superheroes” on September 6 at Crooked Run Fermentation in Sterling. A Northern Virginia Community College philosophy professor will dig into the “meaning and messages” behind popular superheroes. Also at Crooked Run, on September 14, a criminal justice professor will present “The Truth About Confessions,” and explore police interrogation practices. Tickets are typically about $15.
Feature image of founder Peter Schmidt courtesy Profs and Pints
