“There is an important difference between learning which is concerned with the degree of understanding necessary to practice a skill, and learning which is expressly focused upon an enterprise of understanding and explaining.” -- Michael Oakeshott
The university is, of course, supposed to be devoted to the second, not the first, writes Stanley Fish.
He writes about the nature of higher education in his NYTimes blog this week. He discusses a new book that hopelessly chronicles the transformation of universities into institutions that only train young people for specific occupations.
The author of the book, Frank Donogue, describes how the "life of the mind" has been disparaged in American culture since the turn of the 20th century. It is a sad story, without a happy ending, and raises the question as to whether there will be another generation of professors in the humanities.
2 comments:
Here is a Link to a book published by UPENN you might find interesting.
"why education is useless"
http://www.upenn.edu/pennpress/book/13902.html
Thanks for the link -- Looks like something worth checking out.
LW
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