[net-gold] Re: Professors We Need You!
- From: "David P. Dillard" <jwne@xxxxxxxxxx>
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- Date: Wed, 19 Feb 2014 17:15:31 -0500 (EST)
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Date: Wed, 19 Feb 2014 12:49:20 -0800
From: Richard Hake <rrhake@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Reply-To: Net-Gold@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
To: AERA-L@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, Net-Gold@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [Net-Gold] Re: Professors We Need You!
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If you reply to this long (61 kB) post please don't hit the reply button,
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already archived post may be needlessly resent to subscribers. The
abstract reads:
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The LrnAsst List's Norman Stahl at <http://bit.ly/O06Tjn> and Nick Voge at
<http://bit.ly/1j8wBMT> have called attention to Nicholas Kristof's NYT
Opinion piece "Professors, We Need You!" at <http://nyti.ms/1oIs7jD>.
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In a subsequent blog entry "Bridging the Moat Around Universities"
<http://nyti.ms/1kOp8Wi>, Kristof:
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(a) wrote: "[Professors, We Need You! was] about the unfortunate way
America has marginalized university professors – and, perhaps sadder
still, the way they have marginalized themselves from public debate";
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(b) posted 313 comments (as of 19 Feb 2014 09:04-0800) on his opinion
piece, about equally divided between approval and disapproval.
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One of more substantive comments is by Aaron Barlow, faculty editor of the
AAUP magazine "Academe" who pointed to "Public Intellectuals and the AAUP"
(Schrecker at <http://bit.ly/NZH5E5>, and "The Case for Academics as
Public Intellectuals" (Behm, Rankins-Robertson, & Roen (BRR) at
<http://bit.ly/1dDTZky>. BRR + commentors on BRR + myself list about 40
academicians who have "bridged the moat around universities."
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But the fact that at least 40 [out of a total of over a million higher
education faculty] have "bridged the moat" does not negate Kristof's
general claim that "[professors] have marginalized themselves."
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Norman Stahl (2014) in his LrnAsst post "Professors we need you" has
called attention to Nicholas Kristof's (2014a) NYT Opinion piece
"Professors, We Need You!" Nick Voge (2014) responded with some cogent
criticism of Kristof's (2014a) piece.
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Kristof wrote [bracketed by lines "KKKKK. . . ."; my inserts at ". . . .
.[[insert]]. . . . ."; my CAPS]:
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KKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK
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Some of the smartest thinkers on problems at home and around the world are
university professors, but most of them just don’t matter in today’s great
debates.
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The most stinging dismissal of a point is to say: “That's academic.” In
other words, to be a scholar is, often, to be irrelevant.
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One reason is the anti-intellectualism in American life, the kind that led
Rick Santorum to scold President Obama as "a snob" for wanting more kids
to go to college. . . . . . . . . . .[[<http://bit.ly/1oIB1xr>]]. . . . .
, or that led congressional Republicans to denounce spending on social
science research . . . [["Humanities Studies Under Strain Around the
Globe" (Delany, 2013)]]. . . . . Yet it’s not just that America has
marginalized some of its sharpest minds. THEY HAVE ALSO MARGINALIZED
THEMSELVES.
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"All the disciplines have become more and more specialized and more and
more quantitative, making them less and less accessible to the general
public," notes Anne-Marie Slaughter . . . . .[[ <http://bit.ly/1j5kwrU>]].
. . . a former dean of the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton and now the
president of the New America Foundation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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Many academic disciplines also reduce their influence by neglecting
political diversity. Sociology, for example, should be central to so many
national issues, but it is so dominated by the left that it is
instinctively dismissed by the right.
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In contrast, economics is a rare academic field with a significant
Republican presence and that helps tether economic debates to real-world
debates. . . . . . . [[implying that academic fields without a
significant Republican presence are less apt to engage in real-world
debates??]]. . . . . . That may be one reason, along with empiricism and
rigor why economists (including my colleague in columny, Paul Krugman)
shape debates on issues from health care to education. . . . . .[[Rigor
and empiricism of economics? Tell that to eco-economist Herman Daly
<http://bit.ly/1367eoS> and to systems-economist Kenneth Boulding
<http://bit.ly/12dK1hS>. Boulding stated: "Anyone who believes
exponential growth can go on forever in a finite world is either a madman
or an economist."]]
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KKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK
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Voge wrote, in part: "Kristof trots out the old tropes, 'turgid prose' and
'gobbledygook' which simply reveal his own ignorance about scholarship --
not to mention reading. I can read the scholarly articles in sociology and
education just fine, as can many others, whereas goobeldygook is
inherently nonsensical to all. So, perhaps the problem is Mr. Kristof's
lack of knowledge and experience reading scholarly works. When one is
ignorant, expert language (e.g. your doctor's diagnosis) and arguments
(e.g. string theory and multiverses) appear to be turgid gobbledygook. Too
bad Kristof used his platform to air his ignorance when he purports to
admire the academic enterprise."
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Kristof (2014a) ends his NYT piece with "I invite you to comment on this
column on my blog, 'On the Ground' . . . . .
[[<http://kristof.blogs.nytimes.com/>]]. . . . ." See the subsequent blog
entry "Bridging the Moat Around Universities" [Kristof (2014b)]. As of 18
Feb 14:25-0800 there had been 313 comments at <http://nyti.ms/1j8yCZy>
(click on the "313 Comments" at the top of the page). A scan of those
comments suggests that they are about equally divided between approval and
disapproval of Kristof's piece.
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One of the more substantive comments is by Aaron Barlow on 16 Feb 2014. It
reads as follows (my insert at ". . . . .[[insert]]. . . . "): "This is
something that many of us in academia have been talking about and dealing
with for quite a long time. In fact, the most recent issue of the AAUP
magazine 'Academe' (of which I am Faculty Editor) bears the tag 'The New
Public Intellectual.' Much of what Kristof addresses here is also
discussed . . . . [[in e.g., "The Case for Academics as Public
Intellectuals" (Behm, Rankins-Robertson, & Roen, 2014); "From the Editor:
In the Spirit of John Dewey" (Barlow (2014a). And in the Academe Blog see
"Public Intellectuals and The AAUP" (Schrecker, 2014) and "It's Nice to be
Needed?" (Barlow (2014b)]].
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Schrecker wrote: "The problem, of course, is how to disseminate that
knowledge beyond the campus. As the author of one of the most ambitious,
unread, and largely unreviewed recent books on higher education . . . . .
[[probably "The Lost Soul of Higher Education: Corporatization, the
Assault on Academic Freedom, and the End of the American University"
(Schrecker, 2010), reviewed at least once – see Golden (2013)]]. . . . I
can attest to the difficulty of breaking into the mainstream conversation.
I had a non-academic publisher, a professional publicist, and thought I
wrote for a broader audience, but the book disappeared into a black hole."
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Behm, Rankins-Robertson, & Roen (2014) wrote [bracketed by lines
"BRR-BRR-BRR-. . . . . ."; my CAPS]:
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BRR-BRR-BRR-BRR-BRR-BRR-BRR-BRR-BRR-BRR
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College and university faculty routinely communicate ideas to colleagues
in their field when they publish articles and present papers at
conferences. However, unless they pursue interdisciplinary work, they do
not often share ideas with colleagues in other fields. THEY ENGAGE WITH
THE GENERAL PUBLIC OR POLICY MAKERS EVEN LESS FREQUENTLY, and when they
do, they sometimes fail to translate their research into language that is
accessible to audiences that lack familiarity with disciplinary
discourses.
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As science writer Dennis Meredith. . . . . . [[<http://bit.ly/1jQMUkr>]].
. . . has noted, academics have been criticized for their inability to
make their research on critical topics, such as climate change and
evolution, understandable to lay audiences. Harry Boyte, co-director of
the Center for Democracy and Citizenship, and Elizabeth Hollander, senior
fellow at Tufts University, note in the 1999 "Wingspread Declaration on
Renewing the Civic Mission of the American Research University". . . . . .
.[[Boyte & Hollander (1999)]]. . . . . That communicating only to
disciplinary audiences rather than to the public at large has reinforced
"increasingly competitive, individualist" silo cultures. THE LACK OF
INTERACTION WITH ACADEMICS IN OTHER FIELDS AND WITH THE PUBLIC CAUSES
IMPORTANT RESEARCH TO BE OBSCURED IN TRANSLATION, ENCOURAGES PUBLIC
SKEPTICISM, AND INTENSIFIES NEGATIVE PERCEPTIONS OF HIGHER EDUCATION. . .
. . . . . . . . . .
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In "Democracy and Education," John Dewey. . . . . [[(1916)]]. . . . notes,
"A democracy is more than a form of government; it is primarily a mode of
associated living, of conjoint communicated experience." Democracy is more
than an election cycle, campaign rally, or party platform; it is a way of
being in and acting on the world. It is a disposition that emphasizes
bridging differences, coalescing around common interests, considering
alternative perspectives, nurturing relationships, reflecting critically
on values and beliefs, and developing knowledge to address a community’s
core challenges. Democracy, as a disposition, is intensely political
insofar as it cultivates and models the values of democracy, but it is not
partisan. IN DEVELOPING RELATIONSHIPS WITH LOCAL COMMUNITIES, PUBLIC
INTELLECTUALS ARE not ideologues or partisan advocates but rather
EXEMPLARS AND FACILITATORS OF What Education Scholars John Saltmarsh and
Matthew Hartley, in a 2011 white paper, termed "DEMOCRATIC ENGAGEMENT" . .
. . . .[[a Google search disclosed only Saltmarsh, Hartley, & Clayton
(2009)]]. . . . .: civic engagement that emphasizes democratic values in
collaborating with communities to construct knowledge; in generating
appropriate, context-specific methodologies to address local challenges;
and in considering the interests of all constituents. . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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BRR-BRR-BRR-BRR-BRR-BRR-BRR-BRR-BRR-BRR
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BRR, under "Notable Role Models. . . .faculty members [who] have made a
point of addressing the public directly, explaining their research to a
variety of audiences, providing political and social commentary, and
critiquing pervasive and persistent inequities," list (in alphabetical
order by the first letter of the last name): Linda Adler-Kassner, Noam
Chomsky, Michael M. Crow, Stanley Fish, Henry Giroux, Doug Hesse, Alan
Lightman, Les Perelman, Robert Reich, Condoleezza Rice, Mike Rose, Carl
Sagan, Stephanie Wade, Elizabeth Warren, and Christian Weisser. Those who
commented on BRR added the following: Michael Eric Dyson, Melissa
Harris-Perry, Michael Mann, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Cornel West. There are of
course a host of other such role models: e.g., Mortimer Adler, Richard
Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, Freeman Dyson, Paul R. Ehrlich, Howard Gardner,
Gerd Gigerenzer, Stephen Jay Gould, Douglas Hofstadter, Gerald Holton,
David Kolb, Bill McKibben, Dennis Meadows, Roger Newton, Roger Penrose,
Neil Postman, Diane Ravitch, Steven Weinberg, E.O. Wilson, and John Ziman.
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But the fact that at least the above 40 role models [out of a total of
over a million higher education faculty – the National Center for
Educational Statistics, Table 219 <http://1.usa.gov/1fgXwFy> for Fall
2011, indicates the presence 1.6 higher education faculty in institutions
participating in Title IV programs - have made a point of addressing the
public directly does not negate Kristof's general claim that "[professors]
have marginalized themselves."
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Richard Hake, Emeritus Professor of Physics, Indiana University; Honorary
Member, Curmudgeon Lodge of Deventer, The Netherlands; President, PEdants
for Definitive Academic References which Recognize the Invention of the
Internet (PEDARRII); LINKS TO: Academia <http://bit.ly/a8ixxm>; Articles
<http://bit.ly/a6M5y0>; Blog <http://bit.ly/9yGsXh>; Facebook
<http://on.fb.me/XI7EKm>; GooglePlus <http://bit.ly/KwZ6mE>; Google
Scholar <http://bit.ly/Wz2FP3>; Linked In <http://linkd.in/14uycpW>;
Research Gate <http://bit.ly/1fJiSwB>; Socratic Dialogue Inducing (SDI)
Labs <http://bit.ly/9nGd3M>; Twitter <http://bit.ly/juvd52>.
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"In the broad and final sense all institutions are educational in the
sense that they operate to form the attitudes, dispositions, abilities and
disabilities that constitute a concrete personality. The principle applies
with special force to the school. For it is the main business of the
family and the school to influence directly the formation and growth of
attitudes and dispositions, emotional, intellectual and moral. Whether
this educative process is carried on in a predominantly democratic or
non-democratic way becomes, therefore, a question of transcendent
importance not only for education itself but for its final effect upon all
the interests and activities of a society that is committed to the
democratic way of life." - John Dewey (1937)
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REFERENCES [All URL's shortened by <http://bit.ly/> and accessed on 19 Feb
2014.]
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Barlow, A. 2014a. "From the Editor: In the Spirit of John Dewey" Academe,
16 Feb; Academe, Jan & Feb, online at <http://bit.ly/O6btN6>.
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Barlow, A. 2014b. "It's Nice to be Needed?" Academe Blog, 16 Feb; online
at <http://bit.ly/1gSIk1k>.
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Behm, N., S. Rankins-Robertson, and D. Roen. 2014. "The Case for Academics
as Public Intellectuals: Talking only to one another is never enough,"
Academe, Jan & Feb; online at <http://bit.ly/1dDTZky>.
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Boyte, H. & E. Hollander. 1999. "Wingspread declaration on renewing the
civic mission of the American research university," online at
<http://bit.ly/1gOJFpV> thanks to "Campus Compact."
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Delany, E. 2013. "Humanities Studies Under Strain Around the Globe," NYT,
01 Dec; online at <http://nyti.ms/1beYnau>.
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Dewey, J. 1916. "Democracy and Education, online at
<http://bit.ly/1kPBn54> thanks to Project Gutenberg." According to
Wikipedia <http://bit.ly/1gYlVyu> this book was first published in 1916.
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Dewey, J. 1937. "Democracy and Educational Administration," School and
Society 45 (03 April): 457-67. Online as pages 217-25 of the Google book
preview of Boydston (2008). An excerpt is online at
<http://bit.ly/1cW79FC>
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Boydston, J.A. 2008, "The Later Works of John Dewey, Volume 11, 1925 -
1953: Essays, Reviews, Trotsky Inquiry, Miscellany, and Liberalism and
Social Action (Collected Works of John Dewey). Southern Illinois
University Press, publisher's information at <http://bit.ly/1eNBt4L>.
Amazon.com information at <http://amzn.to/1bJdE3K>, note the searchable
"Look Inside" feature. An expurgated Google Book Preview is online at
<http://bit.ly/1jD5CJ8>.
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Golden, S. "The Lost Soul of Higher Education," Inside Higher Ed, 20 Oct;
online at <http://bit.ly/1m2sz9W>.
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Kristof, N. 2014a. "Professors, We Need You!" NYT Opinion Pages, 15 Feb;
online at <http://nyti.ms/1oIs7jD>.
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Kristof, N. 2014b. "Bridging the Moat Around Universities." NYT Opinion
Pages, 15 Feb; online at <http://nyti.ms/1kOp8Wi>.
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Saltmarsh, J., M. Hartley, & P. Clayton. 2009. "Democratic Engagement
White Paper," NERCHE (New England Resource Center for Higher Education),
online at <http://bit.ly/1oKlGMX>.
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Schrecker, E. 2014. "One Historian’s Perspective on Academic Freedom and
the AAUP," Academe, Jan & Feb; online at <http://bit.ly/N3kxRI>.
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Schrecker, E. 2014. "Public Intellectuals and The AAUP," Academe Blog, 27
Jan; online at <http://bit.ly/NZH5E5>.
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Schrecker, E. 2010. "The Lost Soul of Higher Education: Corporatization,
the Assault on Academic Freedom, and the End of the American University."
New Press, publisher's information at <http://bit.ly/1bYJ94i>. Amazon.com
information at <http://amzn.to/1gNJgnE>, note the searcable "Look Inside"
feature.
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Stahl, N. 2014. "Professors we need you," online on the OPEN LrnAsst
archives at <http://bit.ly/O06Tjn>. Post of 16 Feb 2014 11:48:03-0500 to
LrnAsst.
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Voge, N. 2014. "Re: Professors we need you," online on the OPEN LrnAsst
archives at <http://bit.ly/1j8wBMT>. Post of 16 Feb 2014 19:55:40+0000 to
LrnAsst.
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