A couple of weeks ago, I linked to the first two entries in historian David Kaiser’s three-part series on the Supreme Court’s affirmative action decision. The third part is now available. In it, David steps back to consider higher education more broadly. We may not be done debating the role that race plays in college admissions, but there are other problems facing our higher education system that are just as worrisome. As David points out, economic inequality, sky-high tuition fees, student debt, and grade inflation all raise questions about the value and purpose of college right now.
Identity politics could seduce someone as smart as Elif Batuman because of the idea that because of what you are you can be the guardian of something important which the guardians of Western civilization have not wanted to know.
This is really to hear myself talk but because I was so late I already read that post and "where those faculty are to come from" jumped out at me this time. There is potential in the approach which the Catherine Project instructor took that if you are reading a very old book there will be some racist and sexist things said but we will concentrate on whether we believe the things the book says that people might possibly believe now. The question is whether people taking that approach have the kind of fancy research resumes that elite schools are looking for. I think also there is no way out of saying that what "Western Civilization" meant in 1965 is an invented tradition. The day that this post came out Isaac Samuel published his article in ROAPE about how Hegel completely distorted even the information that he had about Africa in order to say that Africa was in a primitive ahistorical state. Without saying that people in the rest of the world cannot possibly find anything that speaks to them in modern European culture, the way that it is taught needs to take account of Europeans being in relationship with the rest of the world and even the Western humility wanting to know about other cultures on their own terms that Allan Bloom was so proud of.
We examined income and education credentials and drew the wrong conclusions. Yes, people with college degrees made more money. That's because in most businesses there are only a few positions that require a college degree. In a business with 1,000 employees, there will typically be about 20 positions requiring a degree. Obvious exceptions exist, such as law firms, medical and engineering offices.
We need to create more companies that make a profit in order to justify more positions needing college degrees. That is the right conclusion.
I suggest that Kaiser make a comparison between US, UK, and Canada waiting times for numerous medical services such as MRIs and CT scans. How do you quantify the cost of these delays in medical outcomes versus price? Otherwise, I found his analysis convincing. Count me suspicious of a big government advocate.
Identity politics could seduce someone as smart as Elif Batuman because of the idea that because of what you are you can be the guardian of something important which the guardians of Western civilization have not wanted to know.
This is really to hear myself talk but because I was so late I already read that post and "where those faculty are to come from" jumped out at me this time. There is potential in the approach which the Catherine Project instructor took that if you are reading a very old book there will be some racist and sexist things said but we will concentrate on whether we believe the things the book says that people might possibly believe now. The question is whether people taking that approach have the kind of fancy research resumes that elite schools are looking for. I think also there is no way out of saying that what "Western Civilization" meant in 1965 is an invented tradition. The day that this post came out Isaac Samuel published his article in ROAPE about how Hegel completely distorted even the information that he had about Africa in order to say that Africa was in a primitive ahistorical state. Without saying that people in the rest of the world cannot possibly find anything that speaks to them in modern European culture, the way that it is taught needs to take account of Europeans being in relationship with the rest of the world and even the Western humility wanting to know about other cultures on their own terms that Allan Bloom was so proud of.
Here’s a partial solution:) https://reason.com/podcast/2023/07/19/mike-rowe-the-missing-7-2-million-male-workers/
We examined income and education credentials and drew the wrong conclusions. Yes, people with college degrees made more money. That's because in most businesses there are only a few positions that require a college degree. In a business with 1,000 employees, there will typically be about 20 positions requiring a degree. Obvious exceptions exist, such as law firms, medical and engineering offices.
We need to create more companies that make a profit in order to justify more positions needing college degrees. That is the right conclusion.
I suggest that Kaiser make a comparison between US, UK, and Canada waiting times for numerous medical services such as MRIs and CT scans. How do you quantify the cost of these delays in medical outcomes versus price? Otherwise, I found his analysis convincing. Count me suspicious of a big government advocate.