To The Victors Go The Spoiled
John Houseman as Professor Kingsford had this to say in “The Paper Chase”:
"You come in with a brain full of mush, and you leave thinking like a lawyer."
If Professor Kingsford were to be a member of the faculty at any major university today he would nod his head in approval. Universities have succeeded well beyond his expectations and not just for those seeking to make a career at practicing the law. After all isn’t life today just one big legal minefield?
Pre-nuptial agreements substitute for romantic commitment. Triangulation and blame placing substitute for risk taking and the consequences attached to possible failure. Self-censorship and mendacity substitute for reasoned discourse about controversial topics. Universities, for those not learning from what passes as role models, are more than up to the task to impart this “knowledge” to their victims.
Admittedly universities do not have much to work with in today’s typical incoming freshman class. After years of self-absorptive coddling from what passes as a high school education why should a freshman think that anything would change in college? By continuing to be self-absorbed and by continuing to wrap themselves in the protective musical cocoon of their I-Pod they should be able to make the “college experience” like the “high school experience” just go away. As with anything done without reason or commitment the only thing left is attending to fulfill the expectations of others.
Some residue of rebellion remains however. It is easier, although just barely, to cut classes in college than it is to cut classes in high school. College funding does not depend on students actually being in class. Instead it depends solely on misinformed consumers (also known as parents and taxpayers) paying extortionate tuition and levies in the misguided belief that a liberal arts education from a “name brand” institution of higher learning means the same thing today that it did more than 50 years ago.
Rather than a liberal education, students instead find themselves falling down a rabbit hole that defies description by a Lewis Carroll and into a land that can only barely be hinted at by J.R.R. Tolkien. Grizzled trolls in the form of professors pat each other on the backs as they reminisce about victories past when they planted their flag in the corpse of academic discourse. All the while these same professors lament that they receive at best polite attention if not blank stares from their young charges clearly showing no enthusiasm about these stories of yore. Administrators sit like village elders who have never left the comfort of their town square terrified of what might lurk outside the hedgerows.
So they have won. And victory tastes like ashes in their mouth. There are no more battles to fight in Wonderland, Mordor, Oz, or whatever you wish to call the university campus. No one cares. Especially uncaring are the students. And why should anyone be surprised? The student has learned his lessons well. Even so, the trolls and elders are bitter in their winter years and the student is left wanting.
"You come in with a brain full of mush, and you leave thinking like a lawyer."
If Professor Kingsford were to be a member of the faculty at any major university today he would nod his head in approval. Universities have succeeded well beyond his expectations and not just for those seeking to make a career at practicing the law. After all isn’t life today just one big legal minefield?
Pre-nuptial agreements substitute for romantic commitment. Triangulation and blame placing substitute for risk taking and the consequences attached to possible failure. Self-censorship and mendacity substitute for reasoned discourse about controversial topics. Universities, for those not learning from what passes as role models, are more than up to the task to impart this “knowledge” to their victims.
Admittedly universities do not have much to work with in today’s typical incoming freshman class. After years of self-absorptive coddling from what passes as a high school education why should a freshman think that anything would change in college? By continuing to be self-absorbed and by continuing to wrap themselves in the protective musical cocoon of their I-Pod they should be able to make the “college experience” like the “high school experience” just go away. As with anything done without reason or commitment the only thing left is attending to fulfill the expectations of others.
Some residue of rebellion remains however. It is easier, although just barely, to cut classes in college than it is to cut classes in high school. College funding does not depend on students actually being in class. Instead it depends solely on misinformed consumers (also known as parents and taxpayers) paying extortionate tuition and levies in the misguided belief that a liberal arts education from a “name brand” institution of higher learning means the same thing today that it did more than 50 years ago.
Rather than a liberal education, students instead find themselves falling down a rabbit hole that defies description by a Lewis Carroll and into a land that can only barely be hinted at by J.R.R. Tolkien. Grizzled trolls in the form of professors pat each other on the backs as they reminisce about victories past when they planted their flag in the corpse of academic discourse. All the while these same professors lament that they receive at best polite attention if not blank stares from their young charges clearly showing no enthusiasm about these stories of yore. Administrators sit like village elders who have never left the comfort of their town square terrified of what might lurk outside the hedgerows.
So they have won. And victory tastes like ashes in their mouth. There are no more battles to fight in Wonderland, Mordor, Oz, or whatever you wish to call the university campus. No one cares. Especially uncaring are the students. And why should anyone be surprised? The student has learned his lessons well. Even so, the trolls and elders are bitter in their winter years and the student is left wanting.
posted by tovarich at 1:50 PM
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