In the Basement of the Ivory Tower

Posted by Steve Hanna on May 16th, 2008 filed in Random Tags: article, atlantic online, college, education, intelligentsia but not the coffee for once, university

The Atlantic Online had this article with subtitle: “The idea that a university education is for everyone is a destructive myth. An instructor at a “college of last resort” explains why.”

I found the article really illuminating. This professor talks about the struggles of teaching students at the absolute bottom rung of the academic ladder and the internal struggle he faces when failing them. Additionally, he discusses the current idyllic vision people have that everyone should go to college and how this mentality degrades the quality of education. I promise this is a worthwhile read.

They’ve all seen The Wizard of Oz. Some have caught it multiple times. So we work with the old warhorse of a quest narrative. The farmhands’ early conversation illustrates foreshadowing. The witch melts at the climax. Theme? Hands fly up. Everybody knows that one—perhaps all too well. Dorothy learns that she can do anything she puts her mind to and that all the tools she needs to succeed are already within her. I skip the denouement: the intellectually ambitious scarecrow proudly mangles the Pythagorean theorem and is awarded a questionable diploma in a dreamland far removed from reality. That’s art holding up a mirror all too closely to our own poignant scholarly endeavors.

Even the title of the article is clever.