Well, right now if some people fail courses in the IIT they approach the SC/ST commission complaining about racial discrimination.
http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?newsid=1171881 Oh, and any Amdavadi silklisters around, y'all ok? Looks like someone let off 17 bombs there - http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?newsid=1179930 srs > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf > Of Radhika, Y. > Sent: Saturday, July 26, 2008 9:24 PM > To: [email protected] > Subject: Re: [silk] Disadvantages of an Elite education > > Is this true in the IITs? I certainly knew people who had failed > classes > after getting into IIT but that was in the 80s before the IITs were > recognized in the west. > > On Sat, Jul 26, 2008 at 7:44 AM, Udhay Shankar N <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > wrote: > > > On Thu, Jun 26, 2008 at 5:57 PM, Badri Natarajan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > wrote: > > > > > This is pretty much the story of my university education. Gautam, > Alok, > > > ring any bells? > > > > > > <http://www.theamericanscholar.org/su08/elite-deresiewicz.html> > > > > On a related note: > > > > > > > http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=26&storycod > e=402674 > > > > All the privileged must have prizes > > > > 10 July 2008 > > > > The banality and sense of entitlement of rich students at Harvard > left > > John H. Summers feeling his teaching had been degraded to little more > > than a service to prepare clients for monied careers > > > > I joined the staff of the Committee on Degrees in Social Studies at > > Harvard University in 2000. As tutor, then as lecturer, I advised > > senior theses, conceived and conducted freshman and junior seminars > > and taught the year-long sophomore tutorial, Social Studies 10, six > > times. The fractured nature of my appointment, renewed annually for > > six successive years while never amounting to more than 65 per cent > of > > a full-time position in any one year, kept me on the margins of > > prestige and promotion even as it kept me there long enough to serve > > three chairmen of social studies, two directors of study and three > > presidents of Harvard. > > > > The post-pubescent children of notables for whom I found myself > > holding curricular responsibility included the offspring of an > > important political figure, of a player in the show business world > and > > the son of real-estate developer Charles Kushner. > > > > In the first meeting of my first seminar of my first year, Kushner's > > son Jared entered my classroom and promptly took the seat across from > > mine, sharing the room, so to speak. I was drawing an annual salary > of > > $15,500 (£7,700) and borrowing the remainder for survival in > > Cambridge, in order that he might be given the best possible > > education. Jared later purchased The New York Observer for $10 > > million, part of which he made buying and selling real estate while > > also attending my seminar. As publisher, one of his first moves was > to > > reduce pay for the Observer's stable of book reviewers. I had been > > writing reviews for the Observer in an effort to pay my debts. > > > > Most of the students I encountered had already embraced the > > perspectives of the rich, the powerful and the unalienated, and they > > seemed to have done so with appalling ease. In keeping with the > > tradition of the American rich they worked exceptionally long hours, > > they were aggressive in exercising their talents, and on the > > ideological features of market capitalism they were unanimous. Their > > written work disclosed the core components of the consensus upheld by > > their liberal parents: the meaning of liberty lies in the personal > > choice of consumers; free competition in goods and morals regulates > > value; technological progress is an unmixed good; war is unfortunate. > > > > Around this consensus crystallised an ethos. One of my less affluent > > students, the son of a postman, asked me once for advice about a > > financial investment. He said his friends had told him to invest "in > > prisons", meaning one of the private companies winning the management > > contracts for correctional facilities. I told him what I thought > about > > this recommendation; but only later, when I learnt how little he had > > to invest ($2,000 was his total savings), did I allow myself to think > > I understood the significance of his question. No amount of money may > > be permitted to lie idle if something may be got for nothing. The > > capitalist theory of life as a game disallows uncapitalised > > advantages. > > > > I asked each of my seminars whether they had so far encountered a > > teacher they genuinely appreciated. If so, what aspects did they most > > admire? Invariably they said good teachers made them "feel > > comfortable". To sense the sterility one had only to listen: > "shopping > > period" was the name of the week they selected their classes. Once, > > when I proposed to teach a junior seminar entitled "Anarchist > cultural > > criticism in America", I was instructed to go ahead only if I first > > changed the title to "America and its critics". Here was the same > > method of cultural hygiene that has transformed Harvard Square from a > > bohemian enclave into an outdoor mall. > > > > Grading, the one instrument of power I wielded, offers the best > > example of the degradation of pedagogy by the frenzy of success. The > > Boston Globe's expose of grade inflation at Harvard has left little > > doubt that it is a semi-rigged competition, another subsidised risk. > > The formal scale runs from A to F. The tacit scale runs from A to B. > I > > learnt the latter from students and supervisors, but especially from > > colleagues, few of whom wish to carry the opprobrium of the low end. > > This is as it may be. But the presence of two standards of value, one > > official and one tacit, is always a sign of corruption: the one > > necessarily dishonours the other. It also abridges the academic > > freedom of the teacher. Although I never gave a final grade below B > > minus, I can attest to the petty harassment that teachers attract in > > such cases. I do not mean merely that the students are never so > > aggressive and articulate as when they hunt for grades. I mean that > > they wage political reprisals against the B-minus grader and send > > gifts to high-placed academic directors. > > > > Once, a judge and his wife went to my supervisor to complain about a > > grade I had assigned to their child in a senior oral examination. > They > > rested their complaint on the fact that I was not yet in possession > of > > the all-encompassing credential, the PhD. They pointed out that the > > second examiner in the room had assigned the exam a slightly higher > > grade, and that this second examiner was, in fact, a PhD. The judge > > and his wife did not know, nor did they care to discover, that I was > > by far the more experienced of the two graders. I had been conducting > > exams for four years; the second examiner had never before conducted > > one. A minor gaffe, but one that William James, author of "The Ph.D. > > Octopus" (1903), could have understood and appreciated. > > > > In January 2008, a "group of Harvard alumni from the Vietnam War era" > > sent an open letter to the university's president. "We are concerned > > by what we see to be the widespread apathy and political indifference > > of the student body at Harvard College today," said the letter > > (reported in Times Higher Education on 4 January 2008), which defined > > the problem as "self-examination and broad intellectual growth versus > > the careerist, vocational orientation". The letter was only > > half-right: the students are the opposite of apathetic and > > indifferent. The new student rich have retained the radical energy of > > the 1960s, only to engage it in more lushly monetised competencies. > > The New Left occupied universities to protest against the > bureaucratic > > hollowness of examination rituals and grading rationales. Now its > > children complete the attack on the authority of teachers, who are > > simply annexed to the management of student careers, drawn into a > > tacit agreement between corporation and client in which failure is > not > > an option. I had to grade the students, and I had to grade them well. > > Everyone expected a recommendation letter. > > > > The ethos, so understood, mimics the psychodynamics of inflation in > > this age of unlimited markets. Since the students were young, > > apparently, their parents and teachers have bathed them in ambitious > > glances, so that the source of their very identity has come to lie in > > their potential. Perhaps this is why, though they demand to be graded, > > they resent the teacher's claim to judgment based on performance, > > which implies a stable set of values. A relatively low judgment may > be > > met by the always available thought that they could have done better. > > > > This thought is not as easy to rebut as one might suppose. Harvard > > students may be divided into three types. The first two are those who > > infer from their presence on campus that they have already made it > and > > those who infer that they are on their way to making it. Both types > > are keenly aware of the prestige-value of their situation. To mention > > to a stranger where one studies is to drop the "H-Bomb". Neither type, > > accordingly, has encountered any really good reason to suppose that > > their potential is anything but limitless. Members of the third type, > > the ironists and the scoffers, have their degree and eat it too, > since > > their anti-Harvard posturing carries no real risks. The gigantic > > endowment, that great symbol of unspent potential, blesses their > > scepticism by indexing their value on the credentials market. > > > > Consider how the grading scandal (an open secret on campus) broke > into > > the public discussion at the same time the dot-com bubble burst. Try > > to see these phenomena as twin instances in the chronic overextension > > of the credit markets. Now ask the question: when intellectuals act > as > > clerks and students act as clients, how do college teachers differ > > from corporate accountants? > > > > Should I say I am grateful for the chance to teach at Harvard? I am. > > Should I acknowledge the many fine exceptions it was my privilege to > > instruct? I do, with pleasure. But the sedulous banality of the rich > > degrades teaching into a service-class preoccupation whose chief duty > > is preparing clients for monied careers. The liberal flattery of the > > student is both sentimental and irrelevant. If youth is wasted on the > > young, is teaching wasted on students? > > > > Teaching on the part-time staff at Harvard is a little like visiting > > Disney World. The magic dust induces a light narcosis. The mind goes > > incontinent in the presence of paradox and conflict, and it is tough > > to tell how much fun you are having from how much you are having to > > pretend. The important thing is never to become the screamer who > ruins > > the ride for everyone. The line is long. > > > > Postscript : > > > > John H. Summers is visiting scholar in the Boisi Center for Religion > > and American Public Life, Boston College, and the editor of The > > Politics of Truth: Selected Writings of C. Wright Mills, to be > > published in September. A longer version of this essay will appear in > > his collection, Every Fury on Earth, to be published in August. > > > > -- > > ((Udhay Shankar N)) ((udhay @ pobox.com)) ((www.digeratus.com)) > > > > > > > -- > Radhika, Y.R. > Project Manager, > Centering Women project, Sri Lanka > International Center for Sustainable Cities > 415 - 1788 W. 5th Avenue > Vancouver BC Canada
