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/