The Sad State of Education

I taught for about ten years at the college and graduate school level. That ended about twenty years ago and things were bad then. However, the sad state of education has only become sadder.

Periodic feedback from former friends and colleagues never fails to amaze me. Each new bit of information trumps what preceded it. The nonsense that now passes for education is unrecognizable by anyone who has been outside of college for a couple of decades or more. The sad state of education appears to have changed to the sad state of time wasting while inflating one’s own and colleagues egos. Omphaloskepsis (“contemplation of one’s navel as an aid to meditation”) would be more valuable than what passes for scholarship these days.

Here is a blurb from Louisiana State University regarding their latest attempts to advance knowledge for the benefit of mankind (er, I should say personkind):

The English Department Works in Progress Series is happy to present 

Amandine Faucheux

presenting her article-in-progress

“The Afrofuturist Queer: Race & Sexuality in Nalo Hopkinson’s Oeuvre”

on Monday, October 26

2:00-3:30 / Allen 202

As is our practice, Amandine has graciously agreed to circulate her work in advance. For a copy, write to either Philip Keel Geheber ([email protected]), Isiah Lavender ([email protected]) or Mary Pappalardo ([email protected]). 

Read the work, and come enjoy the snacks and exciting conversation!

I don’t know the email contacts but in a very real way I do. You see, they are all the same. Their appearances undoubtedly differ, but their minds do not. They think as if their minds were cloned by some scientist to think and emote in the same manner. As such, they are the modern zombies of academe. They are the Stepford Wives of political correctness, particularly with respect to gender, discrimination, gay rights, etc. etc.

Perhaps one or two have read Shakespeare but that is no longer necessary. Their ilk has tortured English out of the English Department, replacing much of the content with courses usually appended with “studies” in the title. Women’s studies, gender studies, queer studies, etc. are but a few of these courses. Literature, unless its primary focus is on these subjects is squeezed out of the modern curriculum. In a few more generations, graduates will receive degrees without knowing who Shakespeare, Pope, Twain, Franklin, Hemingway or a host of other greats were.

There are no snacks and exciting conversation that could tempt anyone but these self-invested fools to attend and listen to this kind of drivel and propaganda. Don’t believe me, email one of these geniuses and pretend to have an interest in the topic. Better yet, request a copy of the work. If you can read through it without losing the contents in your belly, perhaps you should have gone into an English Department at a large university.

I wonder how the state of Louisiana justifies the use of tax dollars on such crap.