[lit-ideas] Re: The Education of a Swain

On Wed, Apr 29, 2009 at 12:10 AM, Ursula Stange <Ursula@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> It's obvious that anyone's education is their own responsibility. But most
> of the students aren't there for an education.  They just want the paper...
>

I wonder if this is a new problem. Years ago, when a similar discussion
arose on another list, someone sent me an essay by Henry George, writing
about his students at Harvard in the late 19th century. Nine-out-of-ten were
worthless, he said, happy to party and receive their gentlemen's Cs. It was
the one in ten, he continued, to which he directed his efforts as a teacher.
The problem today may not be that more students just want to get it over
with, get their degrees and move one. Mightn't it be, instead, that with the
democratization (some would say McDonaldization) of education, the degree
per se isn't worth that much?  Why sweat to get one if that's not what you
are interested in anyway?

John

John McCreery
The Word Works, Ltd., Yokohama, JAPAN
Tel. +81-45-314-9324
jlm@xxxxxxxxxxxx
http://www.wordworks.jp/

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