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The Current Crisis
Welcome to the University
Herbert London's vision of the modern university should be yours.
WASHINGTON -- What is your vision of a university?
Is it the classic vision with profs walking the ivy clad pathways, their books under their arms? Perhaps they wear tweed coats and smoke pipes -- not the lady profs but the men. The ladies dress accordingly, and maybe they smoke pipes. All pore over their books for hours and impart their knowledge to a select body of students. Not the mob that today is forced -- rather cruelly -- to attend classes in remedial education to make up for what they missed in high school, very elementary things such as reading and the rudiments of writing.
No, not at all -- the profs are indistinguishable from the students today. Most are disgruntled. Some are furious. In years gone by they felt superior because of their learning. Today they feel superior because of their ontological existence and because they are tabernacles of certain mysteries. The mysteries are to be found in feminism, African-American Studies, gay studies, and matters too obscure and tedious for ordinary Americanos to grasp.
As for a vision of the university most Americans hold, think of a football team or a basketball team. The athletes are uncommonly large. They attend classes but mostly they attend practice. Some fight criminal charges for fracases they have involved themselves. I am told that the football coach and the basketball coach have an informal budget for criminal lawyers just to keep the athletes out of jail. Or the athletes are fighting drug charges or are in rehab. To be really expert, the coach of the football team or the basketball team on most campuses has to be versed in pharmacology and possibly in mental health. For all intents and purposes the athletes are preparing themselves for a tryout with a professional team. Those that fail to make the pros disappear. Tom Wolfe drew a vivid portrait of what goes on in college in his masterful book, I Am Charlotte Simmons.
Yet that is only one vision of the university. The other is ceaseless demonstrations on behalf of radical politics. Every campus with any claim to seriousness has whole sections of the faculty constantly on the alarm for some pressing political crisis: the environment, world peace, and, more recently, Muslim rights. Most faculty members do not regularly attend church, synagogue, or yoga studios, but for some reason they are very concerned with Muslim rights. Possibly because Muslims -- at least a significant majority of them -- are very anti-Western. I believe, if the fascists were around today and they had their wits about them, they would be forthrightly anti-Western Civilization. That would assure them the sympathy of the university. I can see it now, a Department of Fascist Studies on every great university campus.
These thoughts are engendered by a very challenging omnium gatherum of ideas about the university, Herbert London's Decline and Revival in Higher Education from Transaction Publishers. London has been following the university for three decades, from the inside. He was Dean of the Gallatin School at New York University, "an experimental college." He deposits many of his reflections going back to the early 1970s in his book. He is particularly cogent on the fate of tenure and even more poignantly, the fate of the athletes who do not make it into the professional ranks. They are the majority of the athletes, and once they have failed to make the pro ranks there is nothing for them. They are blanks. They shuffle off to obscurity, the lucky ones to find work of a menial nature, the unfortunate to rehab or the slammer. As I read this book I thought of the legendary basketball coach of Indiana University, Bob Knight. He insisted his athletes graduate. Naturally he was driven from the university by one of the higher education's all-time frauds, Myles Brand.
I put the book down amazed that the athletic departments and the politicized faculties have apparently cut a deal. They will not inhibit each other. They have nothing in common save their insouciance to the true mission of the university, learning. London says that learning for the most part should involve the great books of our civilization. He tried to make that work at New York University and failed. He eventually left, frustrated by the politicians on the faculty and the administration.
He has hope for a revival of the university. Yet I am dubious. The powers arrayed against a teacher like London or against a coach like Knight are too powerful. Knight should have gone into the pros and forgotten his idealism, though his charges were lucky he stayed a while. London has gone into the world of think tanks. He is at the Hudson Institute. Now the role for him is clear. He should make his think tank into an academy and teach the great books. So should other think tanks. Learning is only for the few, and the think tanks have plenty of room for growth.
About the Author
R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr. is the founder and editor in chief of The American Spectator. He is the author of the forthcoming The Death of Liberalism, published by Thomas Nelson Inc. His previous books include the New York Times bestseller Boy Clinton: the Political Biography; The Impeachment of William Jefferson Clinton; The Liberal Crack-Up; The Conservative Crack-Up; Public Nuisances; The Future that Doesn't Work: Social Democracy's Failure in Britain; Madame Hillary: The Dark Road to the White House; The Clinton Crack-Up; and After the Hangover: The Conservatives' Road to Recovery.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (59) | Leave a comment
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Bill| 9.2.10 @ 7:13AM
Universities have followed pop culture and lost relevance in many areas and in the process short change the students and waste the parents money. More attention needs to paid attention to what is going on in tax payer supported institutions of "higher learning". The mush that is disguised as truth and insight is disgusting. I was fortunate that my parents sent me to a christian affiliated college for four years before completing my graduate work at a major university. I would not recommend public education to any young parent for the k through 12 years or for the first four years of college. Public education has lost its way and the tax payers need to wake up and make corrections.
Alan Brooks| 9.2.10 @ 7:02PM
The tuition is so high, you'd think academia is almost worth it. For the cost of getting kids through K-16, they could all be set in businesses-- Green businesses at that.
How much does K-16 cost per capita? over a million?
Alan Brooks| 9.2.10 @ 7:08PM
and (sorry to double-post) how much pollution does a university pump out? lousy term papers alone are forests down the drain-- or through the shredder.
Paul Milenkovic| 9.2.10 @ 11:09PM
The place where I work consumes three to five railroad car loads of coal per day to operate its central heating and cooling plant. Most of the heating demand, however, goes into the "makeup air" from the use of fume hoods in "wet science" labs throughout campus, both in instruction in chemistry and biochemistry and in carrying out scientific research. Into things, like, developing new antibiotic medicines and more effective treatments for cancer.
So like many things in our society, the public university where I work, a "knowlege industry", is indeed a "dirty" industrial enterprise, but it is in the pursuit of knowledge that I don't think many people would do without.
Alan Brooks| 9.3.10 @ 1:14AM
No one would argue with that except Squeaky Fromme, Ted Kaz, and 'Discovery ' Lee.
I do think however that universities have a long way to go until they are Green-- a very long way. There is-- as we both know-- more pollution in and around a university than in or around a shopping mall. Perhaps even a long strip mall.
Paul Milenkovic| 9.2.10 @ 11:02PM
Mr. Tyrrell, I have long respected and even looked forward to your writing, but I think you have taken a cheap shot, inspiring a rabble of hate here in the comments section.
What I do at a public university is teach circuit theory to engineering undergraduates, to 240 students split between two sections last semester, and I conduct research on robotic mechanisms, recent results of which include a simplification of how to calculate the motions of everything ranging from human limbs to automobile suspensions.
Is what I teach "mush disguised as truth and insight"? Other will say I am a mere "instructor in a trade school" and that Engineering is not a "real intellectual discipline."
I reason that in our world that relies on technology and engineering to prevent descent into ruin and chaos, that Engineering and the Physical Sciences are the modern intellectual "coin of the realm." At the very least, the goal of the university is prepare an elite for leadership, and let me tell you, there is a train of prerequisite knowledge in Mathematics and Physics before students get to my Circuits course, and there is a train of advanced-level courses following from that before a student graduates with an Engineering degree, and Mr. Tyrrell, your athletic training perhaps gives you a glimmer of the level of effort and self-discipline of students in an Engineering program at any number of universities in this land.
In an age where everyone here as much as believes that a cell phone operates on some form of magic, you better believe my students form an elite and as their instructor I am an unabashed elitist.
Caped Crusader| 9.3.10 @ 1:03AM
Relax Paul, I do not believe anyone cognizant of what passes for learning in colleges today would believe you are included since they know there are still outposts of true learning of facts in hard science departments in most universities. I know, for I was there 50 years ago and my children 25 years ago. The hard sciences deal in facts for the most part and not in psycho-babble and "feelings".
groovimus| 9.3.10 @ 2:39PM
Paul: I have an MSEE from UT Austin. You are reading this the wrong way and it is apparent that you haven't been following the the attempts to expose the humanities departments on campus. Our degreed citizens who studied the humanities far outnumber the engineers and scientists, and they are being brainwashed. Here is a facebook comment of mine which answers another comment of my posting of THIS article:
"I'm a member and supporter of a major activist organization, American Council of Trustees and Alumni: htt...p://www.goacta.org/
Trust me, this org wouldn't exist but for the crisis in higher education, and I wouldn't have joined but for this. They complete several studies a year, usually at the request of boards or powerful alumni. The reports they generate grade the institution on a whole slew of measures. Most of the biggest do amazingly poorly, and some of the most famous too, like the ivies. I was surprised recently when UT Austin got very high marks on its evaluation, way better than the big private schools. People are paying huge bucks thinking their kids are getting the best, when the outcome is their kids getting "progressive".
BTW this issue is mostly concerned with the humanities, and to a lesser extent schools of education. I couldn't care less about the social sciences, excepting economics."
Rick Z| 9.7.10 @ 10:00PM
Professor Paul:
IIRC, over 50% of the PhD candidates in the hard sciences (Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Engineering, Economics, etc) are not native born Americans. ... ... The soft sciences and liberal arts (sociology, ethnic & gender studies, English, History, Philosophy ...) have enormous grade inflation. The name of the game with the latter is to keep the paying customers (students) entertained, until it is time for the ceremony with the sheepskin.
Appleby| 9.2.10 @ 7:21AM
The older I get, the more grateful I am that I got a classical education while on was still available. And that I did my travelling when the world was still safe enough for a guardian angel to be all the protection a reasonably alert girl would need. I remember sitting in the Poets Corner at Westminster Abbey in a cloud of awe, reading names and thinking poetry to myself. Todays brats, were they to make it to the Abbey, would be crunching apples and dropping F-bombs and wouldnt know a Major Poet if they tripped over his headstone. Today I would not enjoy a trip to a major heritage site in a foreign land; I would be busy watching for suicide bombers.
There is beautiful stuff still to learn -- I pray that there are professors who long to teach it and islands of sanity where students who wish to learn can gather. Please let them continue without being overrun by the legions of tweetheads whose attention is limited to 140 characters, at least half of which must spell *the f word* and *the toilet word*.
I am glad I grew up before the world decided it wouldnt.
PJ| 9.2.10 @ 9:04AM
There are still some excellent colleges out there that still offer a classical education. One has to look a little harder to find them.
Deborah D| 9.3.10 @ 4:35PM
Not sure if this qualifies as higher education -- but there's a wonderful article about online education. Have you heard of the Kahn Academy? It might just revamp and replace at least high school. It might just expand into higher education. You must read this: http://chicagoboyz.net/archives/15322.html ...also this : http://money.cnn.com/2010/08/2.....index.htm. There is hope!!
Bill Hussein O'Stalin| 9.2.10 @ 8:25AM
People who need to be shown how to do everything may not prosper due to an innate lack of motivation and desire.
The real truth is that nature abhors equality and our laws on equality lead to a reduction in reduction for everyone.
Resources are made available based on gender and race and when not available, those programs are not offered to males (Think Title IX.)
In short, we are on a destructive path, defiant of the rules of nature all the while being deluded that equality must be sought, when in fact, nature determines what is and isn't equal.
Tim*| 9.2.10 @ 8:37AM
The College Rip Off Scam .
Suckers pay above inflation prices for an increasingly shabby product produced by those who can't do and thus teach .
The Groves of Academe are in disrepair .
The Groves of Academe
Dr_X| 9.2.10 @ 8:39AM
WOW! This is so true! I am in a doctoral program and I had to listen to a left-wing ideologue called people who hold my political views by a derogatory name with a homosexual connotation. I just keep reminding myself that all college professors have to be extreme left wing in order to gain tenure, not matter the department or subject.
My goal in entering this program is to gain a Phd and work for a think-tank! I want to do research, but not in the “closed” environment of the university. I want to work with others who want to learn and teach, not indoctrinate empty minded undergrads.
There is still hope! I know at least one professor at the institute of higher learn I attend is sane, after all he writes for this site!
Vern Crisler| 9.2.10 @ 8:53PM
Good luck in your efforts Dr. X. Ultimately, the solution to college (and high school) foolishness is a separation of education and state.
Dai Alanye| 9.2.10 @ 8:41AM
I still want this guy--London--to run for high office, since it's always enjoyable to be represented by an intellectual with actual intellect.
Seek| 9.2.10 @ 2:26PM
Actually, he did. Back in 1989, he ran as a Republican for New York City mayor. Needless to say, it was David Dinkins' year.
cuban pete| 9.2.10 @ 8:47AM
Alvin Kernan wrote a very fine book some years ago in the same vein. "In Plato's Cave".
Booger| 9.2.10 @ 9:28AM
Just for fun, do a quick google check with "self esteem" and "university mission statement". Since "fostering self esteem" is inherently incompatible with a great books program, or any truly rigorous program of studies, the rigor and its consequent vigor have to go. Of course I was educated at a state university, and now here I am publicly posting under the name booger. And I didn't even get my heaping helping of self-esteem.
JKS| 9.2.10 @ 1:49PM
Jocks: "What are you staring at?"
Booger: "I thought it was my grandmother's douche bag. But Nah, that's back in Ohio."
Revenge of the Nerds
Thanks for taking be back to a classic B movie with your screen name!
Booger| 9.2.10 @ 11:30PM
Ohio sent it to D.C. in '08.
Siegfried X| 9.2.10 @ 9:34AM
This is also an explanation of our current president, a former university professor. Universities are the temples of the left's religion, and professors are the priests. Obama once said "I am not an ideologue", but of course he is. Being a left-wing fanatic is almost inevitiable for someone indoctrinated as Obama was.
Ned| 9.2.10 @ 2:01PM
Our current president was NOT a university professor. He was a "lecturer". For those unfamiliar with the distinction, think of the difference between a police detective and a meter maid. We've got the latter to run this joint.
hardcard| 9.2.10 @ 9:42AM
North Western University is now touting its new facility in Qutar. " Chicago in the desert"
Ted| 9.2.10 @ 10:06AM
Ah, Bobby Knight... When it is all said and done, he's name will be right up there with John Wooden, Dean Smith, and many other greats (inlcuding Coach K, who played and coached under Knight).
Also, no matter one's personal feelings towards the man, he ran a clean program, his players graduated, and he won. Myles Brand was a damn fool. Proven in spades time and again.
As for my idea of a university, check out John Henry Cardinal Newman's "The Idea of a University." You can find it here: http://www.newmanreader.org/
It's as good a place as any to start....
Marek| 9.2.10 @ 10:29AM
How do we account for the never ending rise in college costs and the increasingly pathetic return on investment in terms of quality education? Why are these " institutions" immune from market forces?. College costs have gone up 17% since 2009. Because of.........what?
Here is one thought. Obama has now taken over ALL student loan funding. That quiet take over was part of the wonderful 2000 page health care bill. Now not only will we continue to make money available to anyone with no underwriting or credit worthiness whatsoever, Uncle Sam gets to choose what colleges get the money. (let's see do you have enough gender studies courses? African history courses? Muslim foot baths on campus? No ?sorry no student loans). Cut off these highly misleading loans (Payments and interest are "deferred "while in school and for many many months afterwards so the borrowers really don't realize what they owe or that such debt stays with you until you die- no bankruptcy, no hardship relief- no due process in the collection realm!) and maybe colleges would get a taste of free market principles.
Petronius| 9.2.10 @ 11:03AM
Answer to Question #1
Pell Grants. Appropriations go up one year. Tuition goes up the next.
cary loos| 9.2.10 @ 10:40AM
I believe that the next university system will exist on line with the the very best and brightest scholors and teachers reigniting the spark of creativity and insight that has been crushed by the dominant system. Much like the "home school" formula, outside events and experiences
can be structured to round out the education process. It is a new era and the old way just is not
good enough anymore.
Petronius| 9.2.10 @ 10:57AM
Back in the day, before I dropped out of college, the cohort of deconstructionist profs and flea bitten followers who wanted to do anything but learn, spewed a constant call for "relevance." Take that to mean, what do history and math have to do with "getting it over on the MAN?"
Academics and students alike lead sheltered lives today; insulated from the unforgiving world of commerce and competition, which is what they really hate. So they turned their universities into monasteries of mediocrity in their quest to eliminate both. Hence, the attraction to communism. Competition is futile when there is no material reward for excellence. But going to any school has never been about learning for self fulfillment. It is about submission. And the Left is horrendous compared to the stuffy old classicists. A former friend who drank their koolaid and graduated from UMSL told me of his English professor; (an feminista of color), who expounded in class that "ebonics be a legitimate language." My former friend, not having his "mind right" at that time, reposted with, "Really? Then how do I major in it?" He had to drop that class; "him bein' a cracka." At the other end of the spectrum, a former friend of my sister was a PHD candidate at Duke. In her final semester the only thing she learned is that graduate school made her a chattel. Her professor set her to teach his classes and do his job while he got on with the serious work of attending conventions and churning out screeds for those professional journals nobody reads. She asked what compensation she would receive. He told her, she'd "better just do it, or not be passed out and graduate." She told him, "No. I'm a capitalist. And I don't work unless I get paid." Her candidacy was canceled.
The only learning that satisfies is that which we seek on our own time. School SUCKS!!
fwb| 9.2.10 @ 12:12PM
There are some at universities who fight for true education. There are some at universities that recognize the need for thinkers. But that some is extremely few.
To do daily battle against the ignorance of the so-called educated requires more fortitude that most can muster. To remain among those who denigrate the past masters requires a strength, a commitment. Many revel in their ideas of how much better it was in the past. But that too is a lie. It has always been a few that passed on a true education. And it has always been only a few who became educated.
I once believed that 1 in 10,000 was a thinker. Near the end of his life, Samuel Clemens believed the number to be 1 in 5,000. Today, I believe the number approaches 1 in 100,000.
In general university "professors" suffer from TWS, Teeny Weeny Syndrome. I have taught my students this for 3 decades. I've also attempted to open their minds, not to my beliefs but to a formulation of their own. After 30 years, I can count on 1 hand the number who have made the leap.
In my world, that of the university, I find the vast majority of "professors" to be a one-eyed horses with blinders on. As they march merrily along to the beat of the drums, they do not see the cliff toward which they march.
Now if we could only get London to form a university where a proper classical education could be had. We do not even need buildings. Just a place to gather.
But then ....
Oh crap, I've no where to plug in my computer. How can I teach without my notes, without my prompts?
My answer: Shoot from the lip!!!!!!
Adam| 9.2.10 @ 1:12PM
I went to a southeastern university with a Div1 A football team, and I have a BS in Chemical Engineering (Clemson, Class of '89). In the years I was there, guess how many atheletes I went to class with. Guess?
One- a German co-ed who was a cross country runner, in of all things, appropriate for a German lady, an organic chemistry class. Never went to class with a football or basketball player. Wonder why....
What a do nothing gig| 9.2.10 @ 1:23PM
Ivory towers have nothing on these rich wing financed thinkless tanked.
A bunch of pseudo intellectual fools, with nothing to do but chit chat like Old Maids.
Obama should ban all the american enterprise, Heritage Foundation, war mongering Project for a New American Century, the dumbest of the lot.
The blood of the dead American troops, and orphans without Fathers, is forever on their hands.
These clowns call themselves intellectuals but knew nothing about tribal culture and Islamic rival theocracy, yet they , led by cheney the demon, into a country, and made Iran more powerfull. Iran should send the group a thank you note for getting rid of Saddam, something Iran could not do in a decade of war.
But hey, the Bush cronies got rich, and what do they care about all the best and brightest Americans killed and maimed for life, and all the orphans with no daddy to play ball with?
Tto jump the gun, after the soviet collapse, and think we could run roughshod over China and Putin, that says it all about the so called intelligence of these right wing extremist think tanks. They are around 7th grade level in knowledge of the real world, but those do nothing jobs, that have rich sugardaddies pay well for sitting around, and are comprable to the Beatnik coffee houses.
Ned| 9.2.10 @ 2:14PM
How's that "degree" in Peaces Studies helping with the job hunt?
Anthony| 9.2.10 @ 3:57PM
Well What A do, we can all attest that you certainly got your $150,000 worth from your lefty college education.
I say this with a great deal of confidence, as your first reaction is to call for Obama to ban all non conforming thought.
I bet you majored in journalism; or perhaps American Studies taught by Howard Zinn.
Albert| 9.2.10 @ 7:45PM
"Obama should ban all the american enterprise, Heritage Foundation, war mongering Project for a New American Century, the dumbest of the lot." Interesting suggestion. In light of your obvious voluminous knowledge of American History and the US Constitution, perhaps you could point out exactly where in said Constitution, the President of the United States would have the legal authority to do this. I can not find it, but after all, I'm only a 7th grade grunt. Furthermore, your exquisite and flawless use of the English language is an inspiration to us all. And lastly, I do apologize for my University degree in History being the functional equivalent of a 7th grade education. Perhaps my extreme youth (I'm 54) has limited my exposure to the "real World" as well, as I have never patronized a "Beatnik coffee house."
Anthony| 9.2.10 @ 2:18PM
God I love Bob!! Why a Thursday without Bob's wit and insight is like V.P O'biteme without a foot in his mouth, something is just missing without it.
Anyway, Bob now has me thinking of making a donation to my alma mater to install footbaths in front of all academic buildings. I figure some lefty bigwig has already purchased 5000 prayer rugs, so I'll go another route.
And, I just ordered a burka for my wife, in our schools colors, with our mascot on the back, which by coincidence, happens to be a black panther. Ah the melding of Islam and radical Leftism, higher education at its very best.
Order yours today!!
RetiredNavy| 9.2.10 @ 2:51PM
I believe there are some outstanding universities left. You just need to take the time and do the research. My son attends Norwich University in Vermont (of all places). We live in Texas, go figure that one out. Anyway, they don't have a mission statement as such but they do speak of the schools goals with terms like discipline and integrity. They wake all the students up for class at 6am by having their engineering students fire an antique field piece (the kids also maintain it in like new condition). Norwich is a private university that ranks very well nationally in academics too. Like I said, they're around, ya just gotta look. When my son and I looked we were impressed.
Go Cadets!
Jim O'Brien| 9.2.10 @ 3:20PM
An excellent college is Hillsdale in Michigan. They have a free monthly publication called Imprimis: http://www.hillsdale.edu/news/imprimis.asp
Hillsdale does not accept federal funding.
joli| 9.2.10 @ 8:22PM
They also don't allow students to receive federal financial aid. I'll add it to my list!
Albert| 9.2.10 @ 5:19PM
I would recommend that parents put their kids in private K-12 schools, then keep them at home for 2+ years while they exhaust the lower division General Education requirements at the local Junior College. The kids can also WORK their way through these years while studying. Then, with most GE out of the way, and few years of PAYING TAXES as real life experience, these kids can move on to the University to complete their degrees. This procedure alone will change students' attitudes and give them practical experiences to draw from when being assaulted with Socialist pablum by their professors. I went back to college in my late 30's and got me BA in History, and I was a major thorn in the side of more than one professor who openly and proudly pushed Socialism as the alpha and the omega of human civilization. As long as kids are raised by the government school system instead of their parents, colleges and universities will never change.
Claire4 Solt| 9.3.10 @ 1:16AM
Why do the citizens pay for this nonsense? I remember being stunned when I learned that the State U swim coach would have no interest in our boys who won two state championships. He preferred recruiting Australilans. Why should Nebraskans pay for that?
I am surprised by this as I was in academe until 1987 and did not see this coming. But by the time I sent my own kids to college they came home tongue tied by PC and contemptous of parents.
Academe is a strong bastion of progressivism where experts who are not expert have managed to get free rein. Citizens need to take them over and return college education to the transmission of culture and learning.
Chatman| 9.3.10 @ 5:28AM
I went to an ivy-league grad school, paid a ton of money, and now make a fair amount myself. I also am pretty sure I never have to worry about starving.
People like to imagine and often demonize that which they haven't achieved. Before I attended my prestigious grad school, I had my doubts as well. But the fact of the matter is that the nation's universities, particularly the ivy-league and other elite east and west coast institutions, educate many of the individuals who form the "tip of the spear" of American enterprise. So who really cares if "liberal studies" is one of the electives?
Ray| 9.3.10 @ 10:33AM
I dropped out of high school (I have GED), never attended collage, served three years in the Army as a Helicopter mechanic back in the 80's, and now I own my own home, have a wonderful wife and children, have a good job as an office manager for a large health insurance corporation (where I started out as a computer "tech" even though I never attended any formal type of computer hardware and software technology training), and will not likely be facing starvation fore the remainder of my life. I attribute this to my own hard work and determination. So, what's college got to do with it?
It's not a college education that provides for your lifestyle, although that education can assist you, its you're own hard work and determination that provides for you.
groovimus| 9.3.10 @ 1:39PM
Hats off to you for your achievement. I wish the current POTUS were so talented, to actually have had the motivation to contribute something of value to our economy.
My brother attained, without a degree, an upper management post at Motorola's pager sector as the service division director, responsible for a 500 person operation. He lost his position around 2000 with that market demise and has not been able to find anything since because of his lack of a degree, so he started a home business which has been almost erased by the current economy.
Now your question "So, what's college got to do with it?" is a little ambiguous, since we don't know to what the "it" refers. If the "it" refers to a career as an innovator in a highly complex endeavor, higher education is indispensable. I may have been able to make the same money doing something else without a degree, but with an advanced degree in engineering, I do something that otherwise I wouldn't have a prayer of doing. So the "it" in this case is wholly dependent on college. I once worked (for a very short time before quitting) for a highly motivated manager with no degree. We used to laugh at his directives because of his poor usage of language, it really affected his image in our group. My brother on the other hand, had no such problem with language. This may be related to the fact of our mother being the first in her family to graduate from college; and earned a degree in English.
S. Ruger| 9.3.10 @ 8:40AM
Mr. Tyrrell has obviously not spent any time on a university campus representative of those that teach the vast majority of Americans who get a higher education. Yes, the humanities faculty are whacked out liberals, but they are tolerated and coddled by the rest of the faculty who teach the useful subjects (engineering, business, medicine, the hard sciences, etc.) as if the humanists were a resident colony of emotionally handicapped, special-needs intellectuals. Students (especially the men, for some reason) know the score, also tolerate the little indoctrinators, and earn degrees in solid subjects. The athletes on most campuses are minor figures (sometimes inspiring, sometimes annoying) and the blowhard humanists make for themselves big reputations in very small (almost invisible) academic ponds around the world, writing essays that any reasonable society would use as kindling long before sacrificing items like Batman comics or posters from Angelina Jolie films.
john| 9.3.10 @ 10:33AM
good article.universities in the english speaking world(i have attended in the usa, uk and ireland)are full of dingbat leftists spouting the usual victim- oppressor sophistry in vogue since the 60s. as one comment rightly said most people let this rubbish pass over their heads but some go on to spout these far left 'isims' in the media or on the bench and as is the case with our current president use it as the foundation for a world view.
Milesdei| 9.3.10 @ 7:40PM
I earned my BA from NYU's Gallatin School in the 80s while London was dean. Because he insisted that I read the classics, I became firmly grounded in, and enamored of, the Western European intellectual and cultural tradition. I recall how the faculty reviled him; years later I know why--he was trying to countervail the anti-Western bias that was becoming increasing prevalent in academia, and which has since metastized to the point that only the death of the host will kill the disease. London and those who think like him are anathema to the postmodern professoriate because they know that the values his pedagogy inculcates result in students cherishing all that they are committed to destroying.
Molly| 9.4.10 @ 9:20AM
I went to school in a conservative town, our newspaper was owned by John Birchers and had a conservative slant. There was a Republican president in office and, later, a conservative governor in my state during my formative years. I did not go to an elite college, I did not smoke pot and I didn't care about politics (I still don't, tho I like rock and roll). So now my kids read Liberal papers and go to Elite colleges and all I can say is, "So what?". Even as my tiny brain was not extruded through a Conservative machine, I expect them to think for themselves. Plus I gave them Liberal & Conservative glossaries when they went off to school. Here's the conservative one, for your edification:
Conservative jokes, catch-phrases & buzzwords:
Ruling Class: Anyone who is not white, not Republican, not male and not Christian. see: New York Times.
NY Times: an elite, ruling class organ that spreads the infectious "Progressive" disease around the world and molds the tiny brains of so-called educated people, with the possible exception of David Brooks.
David Brooks: Used to be OK but has become infected, hanging around the New York Times.
Elite: See Ruling Class and NY Times. Not to be confused with the former definition of elite, to wit: rich, powerful, white male Protestant. Like 42 out of our 44 presidents, only that's different.
Only the Democratic presidents were 'Elite' with the possible exception of Abraham Lincoln.
"A high tide lifts all boats": What George Bush did. (Well, he lifted all yachts, anyway. Scuttled anything smaller, but hey, my boat still
floats...)
"If you're not a liberal when you're young, you have no heart. If you're not a conservative when you're old you have no brain". How
conservatives rationalize the fact that they sent their kid to Harvard, thus making her a member of The Ruling Class.
"What's the most dangerous place on earth to be?" "Between Chuck Schumer and a camera!" Well,that's true.
You already have the Liberal glossery...
Michael DesJardins| 9.4.10 @ 8:45PM
At age 45, I am often the oldest in my classes, just having re-entered the education game. I am a Mechanical Engineering student. My first real engineering professor is an avowed liberal. No doubt he is successful and wealthy. What has me bemused is, that there needs to be any type of political talk in an engineering class. I really don't care about my professor's political viewpoint. I certainly wouldn't go to a politician and ask for their interpretation of the principle of the conservation of energy. Some folks just don't know when they are out of their depth.
So, I'll have to bide my time and listen to the fools and giggle at their agelastic impertinence to myself and then, when all is said and done, take my sheepskin and use what I know to prove them wrong to mine and my wife's satisfaction. Living well, etc...