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Jewish World Review
Oct. 19, 2010
/ 11 Mar-Cheshvan, 5771
Are Universities Worth It?
By
Paul Johnson
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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
At this time every year I find myself asking these questions: What ought universities to be doing? And are they doing it? After all, to take four years out of a young adult's life is a major investment, and we ought to be clear whether or not it's bringing in a worthwhile return. However, our societies seldom produce clear replies to these fundamental questions. The universal assumption is that higher education is valuable, and all governments are pledged to ensure that more and more people receive it.
Plato founded the first center of higher studies in a suburb of Athens. He called it the Academy, and its object was the pursuit of wisdom, to which he had been introduced by his mentor, Socrates. But remember that Socrates was sentenced to death by a jury of 501 Athenian citizens because he had been teaching young people that wisdom was best obtained by learning to think clearly for oneself.
Aristotle, Plato's pupil, founded a second college in Athens, called the Lyceum, and taught there for 12 years. But he left it to go into voluntary exile, lest, as he put it, the Athenians should "sin twice against philosophy"--that is, order his execution.
These facts are worth recalling, as they show that the most civilized city of the ancient world was also confused about what higher education was supposed to achieve.
Universities, as such, were first created in the Middle Ages to train the clergy, and they began assuming their modern form in 18th-century Germany. For two centuries Germany was home to the best universities in the world, leading the field in philosophy, theology, philology and most of the sciences. But this was the same Germany that under Otto von Bismarck became a militaristic state and under Adolf Hitler a totalitarian one. Germany led the world into the two most destructive wars in history. Hitler always received higher ratings from students than from any other group in society, his views being strongly supported by a majority of German academics, with the world-famous philosopher Martin Heidegger setting the pattern.
So universities, and the education they provide, do not necessarily impart wisdom. What they do convey, in general terms, is not so easily defined. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin of Russia received a routine dose of higher education in the twilight of the Soviet Union as a prelude to entering the U.S.S.R.'s secret police community, an intellectual culture in which he still remains.
President Barack Obama found Harvard Law School to be invaluable in providing patrons and a fast-track entry into politics. There he absorbed the left-liberal culture that is Harvard's hallmark, which he is now applying to governing the U.S. and leading the Western World.
Prime Minister David Cameron had three years at England's oldest and most prestigious university, Oxford. Cameron's sojourn there was notable for his belonging (along with other members of his cabinet) to the Bullingdon, a club with a vague connection to horses and a more specific activity of consuming large quantities of champagne.
Such frivolities are not unknown in the U.S. The greatest disappointment in the life of Franklin Delano Roosevelt was his failure to get elected to the Porcellian, the club occupying the same position at Harvard as the Bullingdon at Oxford. FDR went on to win four terms in the White House to general but by no means universal applause.
The quality of higher education received seems to bear no relation to the success or failure of most Presidents. The two greatest, George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, had to learn the hard way. On the other hand, another distinguished President, Woodrow Wilson, first attracted notice as president of Princeton.
It is striking how much or how little great inventors and scientists learned at university. Thomas Edison never attended one, discovering his genius instead while working as a teenage telegraph operator. Charles Darwin went to Cambridge to study for the church but derived the greatest benefit to his career during long rambles with J.S. Henslow, a professor of botany. Darwin was known in his student days as "the man who walks with Henslow." What Cambridge did give Darwin was the opportunity to reinforce his capacity to work hard and systematically and to expand the range of his enquiring mind.
Indeed, the study of universities and the great men and women who have attended them leads me to think that the best of these schools are characterized not so much by what they teach and how they teach it but by the extent they provide opportunities and encouragement for students to teach themselves. The best also help to instill certain intellectual virtues in young minds, including respect for the indispensable foundation of democracy, the rule of law; the need to back up opinions with clear arguments, empirical evidence and hard work; the varying importance of resolute conviction and friendly compromise, when appropriate; open-mindedness at all times; and the perpetual need for courage in the pursuit of truth.
These are essentially moral qualities, which must form the basis of any university education. College presidents and trustees must satisfy themselves that this is precisely what their institutions are providing, as must corporate and individual benefactors. In the long run this is the only way we can ensure that universities justify the resources and time they consume.
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Eminent British historian and author Paul Johnson's latest book is "American Presidents Eminent Lives Boxed Set: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Ulysses S. Grant". Comment by clicking here.
Previously:
06/01/10: The English Language and Freedom
04/20/10: Listening and Telling the Truth
02/28/10: There Is No Keynesian Miracle
10/20/09: A Job Waiting for a Woman?
07/21/09: Obama Has to Be World Sheriff
03/24/09: Short works of genius that cheer up the writing profession
02/11/09: What would Darwin do?
01/27/09: Are you sophisticated? Here's how to find out
01/06/09: What did they talk about in the Ice Age? The weather, of course
09/09/08: Time, and our appalling ignorance of it
08/19/08: Eye-stopping glimpses of an exotic and forbidden world
06/30/08: How to fill a lecture hall, and how to empty it
06/23/08: Americans should count their blessings
05/20/08: Pajamas for Presidents
05/13/08: Literary woodlice boring needless holes in biographical bedposts
04/01/08: When markets come crashing down, send for the man with the big red nose
04/01/08: Quality for dinner. Pass the Fairy Liquid, Old Boy
03/25/08: In search of an American President with brains and guts
03/18/08: Technological warfare against mice won't work. Try cats
03/11/08: What is a genius? We use the word frequently but surely, to guard its meaning, we should bestow it seldom
03/03/08: Fiction as a crutch to get one through life
02/26/08: Impatience + Greed = Trouble
02/13/08: Shakespeare, Neo-Platonism and Princess Diana
02/07/08: Where Industry Has Failed Us
12/19/07: People who put their trust in human power delude themselves
12/12/07: What is aggression?
12/04/07: Pursuing success is not enough
11/07/07: Are famous writers accident-prone?
10/31/07: Courage needed to disarm Iran
09/20/07: Who Will Say I Promise to Lay Off?
07/24/07: Greed is safer than power-seeking
04/02/07: Benefactors must be hardheaded
03/07/07: American idealism and realpolitik
11/28/06: Space: Our ticket to survival
10/24/06: Envy is bad economics
10/11/06: Better to Borrow or Lend? Rethinking conventional wisdom
08/22/06: Don't practice legal terrorism
08/08/06: A summer rhapsody for a pedal-bike
08/03/06: Why is there no workable philosophy of music?
07/11/06: Historically speaking, energy crisis is America's opportunity
07/06/06: The misleading dimensions of persons and lives
06/06/06: First editions are not gold
05/23/06: A downright ugly man need never despair of attracting women, even pretty
ones
04/25/06: Was Washington right about political parties?
04/12/06: Let's Have More Babies!
04/05/06: For the love of trains
03/29/06: Lincoln and the Compensation Culture
03/22/06: Bottle-beauties and the globalised blond beast
03/15/06: Europe's utopian hangover
03/08/06: Kindly write on only one side of the paper
02/28/06: Creators versus critics
02/21/06: The Rhino Principle
© 2009, Paul Johnson
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