Archive for the ‘higher education’ tag
Week in Review: Commonplace Edition
A commonplace book from the 1620's, recording Francis Grosvenor's personal notes on witchcraft and geography
What are you reading, watching, thinking about this week? As usual, here’s a few which have been on our mind. Let us know your thoughts on any/all of them. If you have items you’d like us to consider for the top five, add them in the comments or send them to Tom or Mike.
1. The Collapse of Higher Education: Seth Godin on the coming melt-down in higher education:
For 400 years, higher education in the US has been on a roll. From Harvard asking Galileo to be a guest professor in the 1600s to millions tuning in to watch a team of unpaid athletes play another team of unpaid athletes in some college sporting event, the amount of time and money and prestige in the college world has been climbing.
I’m afraid that’s about to crash and burn.
[Editor's note: I'm not sure about the Galileo at Harvard claim, but Godin makes some very salient points in the rest of his post. ~ Mike]
2. Of the Making of Books: If you’re in literary studies, you probably love reading lists. Here’s a list of books recommended by the Christianity & Literature listserv (HT: Mark Filiatreau). While you’re at it, check out the ESN Core Bibliography and our suggested readings for undergrads.
Teaser alert! We have in our possession a “Beginner’s Christian Bookshelf” reading list compiled by none other than the great Christian literary scholar David Lyle Jeffrey. It starts with Athanasius and ends with P. D. James. We’ll share it with you as soon as we’ve read all the books on it… Read the rest of this entry »
Emerging Adults’ View of Education
Souls in Transition: The Religious & Spiritual Lives of Emerging Adults
I’ve just begun reading Christian Smith’s new book (with Patricia Snell), Souls in Transition: The Religious & Spiritual Lives of Emerging Adults, and it’s already proving to be a useful resource. This is the follow-up to Smith’s last book (with Melina Denton), Soul Searching, which examined the religious lives of teenagers (ages 13 to 17). Technically, the term “emerging adults” applies to ages 18 to 29, but Souls in Transition only looks at ages 18 to 23. The rest of the “emerging adults” spectrum will be the focus of a planned third book. For an overview of Smith’s findings, check out this recent Christianity Today interview with Smith.
To set the stage for discussing religion and spirituality, Chapter 2 examines “The Cultural Worlds of Emerging Adults” – sex, relationships, morality, and so on. There’s lots of interesting stuff in this chapter – for example, Smith makes the case that emerging adults seem to be living out simplified versions of the philosophies of Jacques Derrida, Stanley Fish, Richard Rorty, and G. E. Moore – but today I’m going to highlight emerging adults’ views of education. As you might imagine, with so many either in college or aspiring to college, education forms an important part of their world view, but their view of education leans strongly to the pragmatic, instrumental value.
Many, though not all, emerging adults believe in the importance of finishing high school and getting a college education. Large numbers want to go to university, do well in school, get a degree, and put it to use. But for most, the motivating reasons behind their valuing higher education seem to have almost entirely to do with the instrumental advantages it produces — as well as the fun one can have while in college. What matters is getting the credits, earning the diploma, and becoming certified as a college-educated persona so that one can get a better job, earn more money, and become a good salary earner and supporter of a (materially) comfortable and secure life. Not very many emerging adults talk about the intrinsic value of an education, of the personal broadening and deepening of one’s understanding and appreciation of life and the world that expansive learning affords. Few talk about the value of a broad education for shaping people into informed and responsible citizens in civic life, for producing leaders and members who can work together toward the common good of all in society…For most, higher education is good instead because — besides the fun one can have while in college — it promises to help secure for individuals more rewarding jobs, higher income, and so greater personal prospects of materials and psychological well-being and security. (Smith, 54)
This attitude is not necessarily new (“Plastics,” anyone?), but elsewhere in this chapter Smith writes of emerging adults’ cultural relativism, desire for material comfort, lack of political or community engagement, and low expectations for changing the world. ESN’s mission is to see Christian scholars become redeeming influences, and InterVarsity’s Vision seeks “world changers developed,” so we are fighting against the current of the culture, according to Smith’s analysis. Since ESN encourages Christian students to pursue academic vocations, this attitude toward higher education can be a challenge to work against; important fields like the humanities can be, well, materially challenging.
Do you agree with Smith? Do emerging adults, ages 18-23, see higher education as primarily a path to middle class security? Have you seen exceptions to this? And, maybe most importantly, do Christian students mirror the culture, or are they a “counterculture for the common good”?
Week in Review: Shop Class, Teaching Naked
Welcome to this week’s Week in Review! If you have your own link or suggestion, please add it to the comments, or email it to Tom or Mike.
From Tom
1. Another piece to throw into our technology conversation: How about teaching naked, i.e., sans machines? Do you agree with José A. Bowen, dean of Southern Methodist University’s Meadows School of the Arts, in his comments regarding the quality of classroom powerpoint instruction and the rise of on-line classes to replace such offerings? Note: The video complents Jeffrey Young’s Chronicle of Higher Education article When Computers Leave Classrooms, So Does Boredom (July 20, 2009).
$ of Higher Education
In the midst of conversations regarding the recession and the bailout, I find myself talking with colleagues, friends and family about the complex price tag of higher education. If you’re like me or have a curiosity regarding the topic, take a moment to bone up by reading this week’s Chronicle of Higher Education’s piece STICKER SHOCK: The $375-Billion Question: Why Does College Cost So Much? Here’s a few paragraphs which I’ll refer in the coming days (Note: read the article for the data/examples):
A poll of likely voters commissioned by the National Education Association and released two weeks ago showed that 70 percent of parents and 65 percent of students said making college affordable was an important issue for them in the fall election. … Read the rest of this entry »
