TIMES TO KRUGMAN: DON'T TRY TO SAVE THE WORLD Pretty amazing for the New York Times to run this op-ed, considering its constant citation of the change-the-world agendas of academics like Paul Krugman. It's by Stanley Fish, dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Here are the first and last paragraphs. Are you listening, Krugman?
<After nearly five decades in academia, and five and a half years as a dean at a public university, I exit with a three-part piece of wisdom for those who work in higher education: do your job; don't try to do someone else's job, as you are unlikely to be qualified; and don't let anyone else do your job. In other words, don't confuse your academic obligations with the obligation to save the world; that's not your job as an academic; and don't surrender your academic obligations to the agenda of any non-academic constituency — parents, legislators, trustees or donors. In short, don't cross the boundary between academic work and partisan advocacy, whether the advocacy is yours or someone else's...Stanley Fish, dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at the University of Illinois at Chicago >
One would like to think that even the exaggerated sense of virtue that is so much a part of the academic mentality has its limits. If we aim low and stick to the tasks we are paid to perform, we might actually get something done.
Thanks to reader John Patten for the link.
Posted by Donald Luskin at 9:59 AM | link |
