In the end, all of these structures are built on people. And people will do what people do.
Not at all clear what your point is here. Let me restate something so we can get a bit clearer. Structures order incentives which, in turn, order actions. The book's author provides an explanatory model which portrays a set of structures, creating incentives which run counter to the general goal of a liberal education, both in terms of the socializing process which produces such students, the culling admissions process, and the incentives on campus.
The reviewer is arguing something like all well and good but any model has its exceptions. In fact, they are more than exceptions but rather another on campus model. More in line with those liberal education goals. The reviewer, Anthony Grafton, however, doesn't sketch out the process model which produces such.
Since my own convictions about the proper goals for a college education are in line with Grafton's views, I had hoped to see more.
I agree, however, with a couple of things. Both authors praise the liberal arts colleges as, by and large, embodying those views. Though they are being challenged at each and every one.
And, second, even on campuses like the Ivies one can find genuine liberal arts education taking place. But we need a better description than the meager one Grafton offers. I was fortunate enough to find such an education on a large state university campus, the University of Texas in Austin, the 50s, in a program called Plan II. Such opportunities were extremely rare then. No doubt they are rarer. Extremely sad.
Though to continue this thought, on some campuses in City University in New York there are noble efforts to swim against these tides. Perhaps that swimming against the tide is more prevalent that appears, just running beneath the radar.
Many will be mainstream (sheep, I guess- but thank goodness for sheep of all kinds- as we've sort of built society on their backs. There wouldn't be any great cathedrals in Europe if there had not been sheepish peasants doing all that work to support everyone else).
Well, as much as I love those cathedrals, particularly the striking colors in Italian cathedrals, I would have much preferred we do without the middle ages incentive structures for peasants in order to get them built. To some degree they are built by members of the guild structure of the middle ages. Good for them. But to some very large degree, they are built out of some of the most objectionable forms of exploitation available.
So while I think it's great there are books like this, we also need a book In Praise of Sheep- because sheep do a lot of things people like William (and me) would not want to do. And some of that work actually needs to get done :-)
And we are in the process of dismantling one of the better incentives for getting that done as we increasingly attack municipal, state, and federal employees, demeaning them, underpaying them, and cutting their benefits. Shame on us. |
