Posted on 10/30/2008 9:39:33 AM PDT by bs9021
World-Saving Education Deconstructed
by: Lance Nation, October 20, 2008
When beginning a piece by Dr. Stanley Fish one is never quite sure what to expect. His new book Save the World on Your Own Time is no exception.
The Davidson-Kahn Distinguished University Professor of Humanities and a Professor of Law at Florida International University, Dr. Fish’s new work takes a controversial stance towards the purpose of higher education:
“The core of a college or university experience should be the academic study of the question posed by the various disciplines.” “College and university teachers can (legitimately) do two things,” writes Dr. Fish.
“(1) introduce students to bodies of knowledge and traditions of inquiry that had not previously been part of their experience; and (2) equip those same students with the analytical skill—of argument, statistical modeling, laboratory procedure—that will enable them to move confidently within those traditions and to engage in independent research after a course is over.”
Professor Fish believes that too many teachers have adopted Derek Bok’s philosophy towards education:
“The former president of Harvard and the author of Our Underachieving Colleges. . . Bok believes colleges and universities should be trying to . . . ‘develop such virtues as racial tolerance, honesty and social responsibility’; ‘prepare . . . students to be active, knowledgeable citizens in a democracy ’;‘ nurture . . . good moral character.’”...
(Excerpt) Read more at campusreportonline.net ...
read later
If campuses are getting too indoctrinaire even for Fish, we are truly in trouble.
“The core of a college or university experience should be the academic study of the question posed by the various disciplines.”
An insane and destructive man in university education:
Bok believes colleges and universities should be trying to . . . ‘develop such virtues as racial tolerance, honesty and social responsibility’; ‘prepare . . . students to be active, knowledgeable citizens in a democracy ’;‘ nurture . . . good moral character.’”
If you go to school to become an engineer and come out a Marxist revolutionary is this a successful education or a successful indoctrination. Where does Dr. Bok suppose we are to get our engineers?
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