Many professors would prefer to hide under their desks than take principled stands on controversial issues. This is the hostile, regressive academic climate the left has created and it's destroying higher education, or what was once higher education. I think all of the Ivies have dropped the core curriculum that once existed. They had just dropped it at Brown when I was a graduate student, briefly, unlike my alma mater, Purdue, that still has a core curriculum making up roughly half of the credit hours for graduation. At other schools, the faculty caved to student demands and lost the will to tell young people what they needed to be considered educated. I agree with Charlie Kirk. A bright student can create, perhaps with nthe help of a good mentor, a self-directed general education curriculum that will cost a fraction of what it would to attend a university. There are exceptions, of course, if you want to study medicine, many science fields, law, etc. But for the liberal arts, social sciences, and much more you will get a far better education with a self-direced program of reading, The Great Courses provide a rich array of excellent, and non-biased learning with top professors because they are geared toward adults who wouldn't tolerate what young people blindly accept. Hillsdale College has about 40 courses. And there's a multitude of relevant lectures and interviews on YouTube. Thomas Sowell is one of my favorites. Incidentally, the numbers of students majoring in history, political science, literature and most other liberal arts fields has plummeted in the last 30 years, and for good reason.
Great question. What do you think? Seems to me there's a kind of sliding scale in effect here from nearly iron-clad job security (for tenured profs at well-resourced institutions) to at-will employees (adjuncts). In theory, all profs. have academic freedom and the right to speak up--but in practical terms, I can certainly understand why contingent faculty would be hesitant.
This was superb. Is there a transcript available? I'd like to write a follow-up post at some point and quote from the conversation.
Thanks, Rajiv! There is a rough transcript available. See the *Transcript* link on the right, just below the title and byline--
https://banished.substack.com/p/are-too-many-professors-excellent
Excellent conversation. I thought this was a particularly thought provoking piece, and I'm glad you are promoting it.
Thanks so much for taking the time to listen, Paul!
Many professors would prefer to hide under their desks than take principled stands on controversial issues. This is the hostile, regressive academic climate the left has created and it's destroying higher education, or what was once higher education. I think all of the Ivies have dropped the core curriculum that once existed. They had just dropped it at Brown when I was a graduate student, briefly, unlike my alma mater, Purdue, that still has a core curriculum making up roughly half of the credit hours for graduation. At other schools, the faculty caved to student demands and lost the will to tell young people what they needed to be considered educated. I agree with Charlie Kirk. A bright student can create, perhaps with nthe help of a good mentor, a self-directed general education curriculum that will cost a fraction of what it would to attend a university. There are exceptions, of course, if you want to study medicine, many science fields, law, etc. But for the liberal arts, social sciences, and much more you will get a far better education with a self-direced program of reading, The Great Courses provide a rich array of excellent, and non-biased learning with top professors because they are geared toward adults who wouldn't tolerate what young people blindly accept. Hillsdale College has about 40 courses. And there's a multitude of relevant lectures and interviews on YouTube. Thomas Sowell is one of my favorites. Incidentally, the numbers of students majoring in history, political science, literature and most other liberal arts fields has plummeted in the last 30 years, and for good reason.
How might this apply to Community College faculty?
Great question. What do you think? Seems to me there's a kind of sliding scale in effect here from nearly iron-clad job security (for tenured profs at well-resourced institutions) to at-will employees (adjuncts). In theory, all profs. have academic freedom and the right to speak up--but in practical terms, I can certainly understand why contingent faculty would be hesitant.