2005-10-25

Wisdom from Professor (Retired) Victor Davis Hanson

You educators will probably find this especially interesting.
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1 comment:

Paul Hue said...

A priceless commentary:
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Either it has to offer a great deal of fluff because so many of its students arrive fluff-headed, or so many of its students leave fluff-headed after taking a great many fluffy classes. Mediocrity is apparent not just in new and vapid academic programs and departments (“Recreation and Leisure Studies,” “Conflict and Peace Studies”), or in the proliferation of such courses as “Basic Massage,” “Rock Climbing,” and “The Chicano Family.” Far more revealing is the vast growth of new centers, programs, and services that simply could not have been conceived of in the university of the past but are now institutionalized — and require floor space, release time from teaching, new technologies, endless counseling, and millions of dollars in secretarial and administrative support.
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This is exactly the problem: high schools have become filled with fluff, which requires the universities to fill themselves with fluff so that they can accomidate fluffy students (since society won't let universities impose rigorous admissions standards). But this fluff-ification of the universities inevitably seduces non-fluffy students into becoming fluff-heads, and distract the entire overall mission away from rigorous academic matters. Brilliant commentary, sure to be ignored.

The only answer: we must educate ourselves. Criticizing fluffiness is essentially impossible, since so many of our fellow citizens have "fluff" degrees, and are thus emotionally sensitive to criticism of fluff.

11:54 AM

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