But then I am naive to have such expectations!
Monday morning, I picked up the newspaper that was waiting for me on the front porch, and the front page headlines was, well: pathetic, shocking, disgusting. Check it out:
Seriously, "a study in size" is how the editors decided to refer to a news story about a small college in town? Size? WTF!
There is a good chance that most of us do not even notice these anymore, because we are so much used to such language. Locker-room talk has been mainstreamed.
The report was not really a "study" in size either. It was not as if there was any analysis of educational outcomes across colleges and universities that are small and big.
In order to provide a link to the story, I searched the newspaper's website. Guess what? The headline there is different:
Why didn't they run that in the original, right? "Small is beautiful" is not only a phrase that many of us are familiar with, especially thanks to Schumacher, but guess what?
One of the taglines on Gutenberg’s website? “Small is beautiful.”
Yet, the newspaper's editors originally captioned the story as about "size." Idiots who continue to peddle that old and awful idea that sex sells!
2 comments:
I read the story from your link. Here are some excerpts
"It requires two years of Western civilization classes focusing on The Enlightenment freshman year and ancient civilization sophomore year; four years of microexegesis on Aristotle, the New Testament, Kierkegaard and Biblical Hermeneutics;"
I challenge any person in the world to explain what it means without referring to a dictionary !
And a couple of more excerpts
"We are very interested in encouraging students to pursue what’s true in the context of a faculty that’s committed to biblical Christianity.”
"All Gutenberg students must sign a “Biblical Foundation Statement,” which outlines a biblical worldview."
Why would I want to join such a college. No wonder it has 13 students.
But as with all these things, there are some intriguing positives as well. The obvious one is the student teacher ratio. But other less obvious ones too. "Gutenberg is here (so we can) become better human beings. You end up being better at whatever job you have, but it’s not for a specific job.” That is right after your heart.
And when I scoured the reading list for the university, I realised I would stand absolutely no chance of even qualifying for admission. I freely confess I have never heard of Deuteronomy, Ecclesiastes, Kierkegaard, or Spinoza.
well ... it is pretty much a religious school.
but, there are a few institutions that do the "great books" route. The "great books" are all from the West. The wisdom of the dead white men, as many criticize that.
nope, this school that is portrayed is not right after my heart. nope. In my version of schooling, there will be a lot more emphasis on wisdom from diverse sources. I don't mean to suggest that this will not yield better human beings. But, orthodoxy of any kind is not what I favor.
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