“You can lead me to college, but you can’t make me think,” proclaims a shirt reportedly popular at Duke.
How true — and how sad.
In a recent class of mine, one student would ask “will this be on the test?” all throughout the semester, nearly every time something especially complicated was discussed. If the answer was no, she fell silent. Only if the answer was yes did she feel like it was worth following up: “Could you explain that again?”
Grade-obsessed students like this one will surely graduate, but they’ll leave with an expensive piece of paper and some nice numbers, not an education.
In a society where competition is rewarded and “intellectual elitist” is a scathing slur, it’s no wonder that some treat college like a tollbooth: choose a lane, pick up your diploma, and drive off. E-Z Pass is available for everyone, of course.
It’s not such a leap to link a collegiate environment of widespread grade inflation and obsession to the frightening trend of anti-intellectualism sweeping the nation. It’s too bad that even here, at one of the nation’s best universities, acting a little stupider than you are is par for the course.
But at least you’re just acting. Right?
Susan Jacoby was inspired to write her new buzz-making book, The Age of American Unreason, by a pair of men in suits she overheard talking on September 11th:
“This is just like Pearl Harbor,” one of the men said.
The other asked, “What is Pearl Harbor?”
“That was when the Vietnamese dropped bombs in a harbor, and it started the Vietnam War,” the first man replied.
Huh.
That must not have been on the test.
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February 23rd, 2008 at 11:50 am
It’s amazing the kind of stupidity you overhear walking through the library or the streets of the city!
February 23rd, 2008 at 2:18 pm
Ugh, how frustrating! You would think that students attending a place like Penn would value the actual educational element of their education. That was sad when Vietnam bombed Pearl Harbor. Almost as sad as when Hitler invaded Pakistan to ignite the American Revolution.
February 23rd, 2008 at 4:51 pm
I had a long conversation about this last night with a Canadian and Londoner. One finds Americans to have a charming naivete. The other finds offense to widespread and acceptable “ignorance.” You’ll never guess who had the harsher opinion…
February 23rd, 2008 at 7:21 pm
Lauren,
Thanks for the great post — and the eye-opening Washington Post article. Jacoby’s remarks about geography ring particularly true. I think if more Americans knew that Iran was sandwiched between - gasp - Iraq and Afghanistan, they might be more receptive to Iran’s recent resentment of U.S. naval boats floating right at their gates.
Aaaand just for irony’s sake, I’ll leave you with a famous pop-culture quote… “Don’t wanna be an A-mer-i-can Id-i-ot!”
Steve
February 24th, 2008 at 4:42 am
While I agree with your post, Lauren, I think one must really question Susan Jacoby’s judgment–indeed, even her sanity. On a day as momentous as September 11, she was inspired by this one idiosyncratic experience? Wow, perhaps our nation’s moral health is more deeply troubled than our dysfunctional, NEA-dominated public education system.
Steve, while you are correct to point out that Iran is located between Iraq and Afghanistan, your statement about Iranian “resentment” is a non sequitur. Iranian boats approached and harassed U.S. Navy ships, not the other way around. Don’t let Farsnews or the DailyKos convince you otherwise. In addition, Iranian Quds Forces have continually sent advanced weapons and insurgents (not to mention huge sums of money) to undermine coalition stability operations in Iraq. Contrary to the knee-jerk response of liberals and the academy, the U.S. is not to blame for the world’s ills. The U.S. has been the greatest force for good in world history. I know that’s hard for many liberals to accept. They love to assuage their feelings of guilt with arguments about the sins of “imperialism” and “orientalism” and about the need for “moral relativism” in the face of competing ideologies. But, at the end of the day, when driving home in their Lexus to their spacious house on a tree-lined cul-de-sac in Bryn Mawr or Ardmore, even they must realize how good they have it.
June 10th, 2008 at 2:32 am
Perhaps we cannot blame this kind of thinking soley on undergrads? Think of it this way: Parents are paying $50,000 per year for their son or daughter to attend college. What is the first question they ask their kid when he/she calls them? Is it, “What did you learn in your Political Science class today?,” OR is it “What did you get on that Political Science test?”
Some students have become so trained to only care about what is on test.
In high school, it seemed like almost all teachers “taught to the textbook.” In college, I’ve really began to appreciate the professors who will toss away the syllabus if there is interesting news occuring in the real world that relates to the class. For example, in a class called “Electoral Reform,” we were supposed to learn about the rules and such about the nomination process and then the general election process. However, since the Democratic primary was so fascinating, we would spend the first hour of every class discussing the current race. Good stuff. Speaking of “Electoral Reform,” I should be writing the final paper for that as we speak! Back to work!