What's wrong with (mildly) disrespecting our students. A lot of what they do
is forgivable but not particularly defensible. Just as a lot of what we do is
forgivable but not particularly defensible.
The real problem here is collusion between students and faculty and
administration.
We do basically two jobs.
1. Produce and disseminate knowledge (or ideology), some of which involves
interacting with undergraduates.
2. Credentialling (issuing middle class union cards).
Thus students who have little interest in 1. can quite rationally spend lots of
money and time pursuing 2. Since 1. and 2. are only tenuously connected,
students can pursue 2. without learning much or anything and we can issue 2. to
students who haven't learned much or anything. We consent to do 2. because it
produces revenue which allows us to do 1. As a society we subsidize students
to do 1. because it is useful and admirable. We subsidize students to do 2.
because of the political influence of the middle class and because it would be
unfair to overtly deny access to credentials to those without money.
We know why we do 2. (see above). This is forgivable but not particularly
defensible. The real question is why society bothers with it
Terry
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