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« Addiction studies | Main | Woe is us, Part 1 » Wednesday, March 14, 2007Where does education take you?I've just read an essay in the New York Review of Books by Andrew Delbanco, one of the most astute observers of education working today. The article is called "Scandals of Higher Education," but that's not really what it's about, though it would be hard to capture its subject in a pithy phrase because it is so wide-ranging: from race and class in admissions, to L'Affaire Larry Summers, to current lamentable pedagogical trends -- e.g., away from Socratic questioning that might earn a professor a bad student evaluation for being "unfair." What I found most interesting, other than a thorough consideration of Walter Benn Michaels's "The Trouble with Diversity," is Delbanco's observation, almost stirring in its manner of delivery, that too little attention is now paid to the purpose of higher education. Just what is it all about, Delbanco wonders? Even Derek Bok, whose book he praises, leans on "Critical Thinking" as the ultimate end, which is in fact just a tool that can be wielded in valuable or useless ways. I could use critical thinking to rob a bank. Aren't we trying to forge leaders here? Even people with exemplary ideals and character? Or is that hopelessly old-fashioned? Sigh, I hope not. Posted by Evan Hughes at 06:43 PM
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