Quote of the day: on higher education

The vision of a college education that Hacker and Dreifus advance is as timeless as Cardinal Newman's classic 19th-century account, The Idea of a University. "College should be a cultural journey, an intellectual expedition," the authors write. A major like sport management or sign-language interpretation has no place in this vision: "It isn't education. It is training." What should colleges do? Make undergraduates "more interesting people," Hacker and Dreifus say.

So writes Professor David Kirp, of UC-Berkeley, while reviewing a couple of books on higher education, of which one is the recent book from Andrew Hacker and Claudia Dreifus, who list in their book Western Oregon University as one of the best places to get educated for the money spent.

Of course, as I have blogged earlier, and as difficult as it might be to imagine, the recognition from Hacker and Dreifus was not actually well received in the university.  Academe is a strange place where even compliments can become controversies :)

Anyway, I wonder if Hacker and Dreifus did all their homework then: the university where I teach, which they applaud, has a big sign language interpretation program, and a minor in sports management too.  If despite all that they are willing to applaud the university, then the state of most other American universities must be highly crappy, eh!