Hm, no. There are trees and then there's the forest. Instead of taking this post in isolation, I think you have to address the overall impulse at its source. This is part of Louis' long-standing crusade against academics, which -- like most other crusades he champions, comes straight from the seat of his pants.
To be sure, there's no cell in a capitalist society that doesn't, one way or another, synthesize and reproduce the system's crap, some in uglier forms than others. There's plenty to criticize in the structure and functioning of schools, from the bottom to the top. No kidding about it. In many ways, they are no very different from corporations and other organizations infused with the "spirit" of capital. But, you have to really be confused to fault graduate schooling for -- to mention an example -- the existence of the reserve army of the unemployed! WTF! The assumptions on which these "critiques" are based are part of the problem. Scratch the surface of the rants and, when they are not an appeal to base emotion, then there's some crass or subtle reference to narrow cost/benefit considerations. Gist: Taxpayers' resources are being wasted for no good reason. And all you get is a bunch of good-for-nothing people, who will then move to Williamsburg to sip espressos and read Foucault at the Garden Grill. It's the we-also-need-plumbers kind of argument. Within the division of labor everything, against the division of labor nothing. It's all about discrediting, fostering contempt and envy against academics and intellectuals (composed by none others than academics and intellectuals!). I got my Ph D at a public institution: the CUNY GC. If a sample of 1 is good enough (and it should be at least as good as those of the critics), then my conclusion is that the CUNY system provides the highest-quality grad schooling per tuition dollar in the country. I know it has many flaws and defects. Not all teachers will inspire or give you the greatest advice. But, no, it is not acceptable to say that CUNY is out of whack with the rest of society, because it doesn't match well conditions in the local labor market or the needs of industry in the 21st century. Well, maybe the conditions in the labor market and the rest of society need to be examined as well. Maybe the role of graduate education cannot be reduced to trailing the sudden seizures and spasms of capital and political power. I argue that working people need many more institutions like CUNY and its GC. The radical critique must be directed against the high cost of education, the drive to privatize education, the attacks on teachers and their unions, the meager budgets of these institutions compared to oil subsidies or military adventures. Do not discredit these institutions, their work, their faculty, students, and alumni by aspersions based on personal wankery that won't stand the laughing test. On Tue, May 14, 2013 at 9:43 AM, Jim Devine <[email protected]> wrote: > this critique of graduate school education doesn't have to go in that > direction ("it's the worst!"). It could also go toward reforming the > institution. In any event, the article useful to those of us who've > gone through the process, and ends with positive advice: "Take > advantage of your time in school to do something meaningful, and then > share it with the world." Not only is that good for the graduate > student, but it's good for the graduate school (though the leaders of > the latter likely don't know it). _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
