back to school

I had two unrelated conversations at the same event about the conservative and corrupt qualities of the university - one with a Brandeis graduate student, another with an aspiring history graduate student who is finishing his bachelor’s at the University of Texas.

Worth writing down some of the issues we discussed, and exploring in further details as this blog unfolds - among them were:

• the explicit and implicit purposes of the dissertation
• the abdication by philosophers of “the big questions” in their field
• refusal of state school professors to recognize themselves as civil servants

More will come to me, I’ve no doubt.

I’ve been in correspondence with a professor of philosophy and education because, despite my concerns, I do want to go to graduate school. I wrote him the following letter:

Dear Professor […],

I’m currently working at […]. I’m interested in applying to the Philosophy and Education program later this year to pursue my interest in some of the underpinning principles of how we teach and how we learn, but I’ve a couple of reservations that I hope you’ll be able to address. They pertain specifically to (a) funding and (b) the required dissertation.

First, how many of your PhD students are fully funded? (Funding is a make-or-break consideration for me since I’m very reluctant to take on debt and not in a position to sponsor my own education.)

Regarding the dissertation, I’m interested in exploring the future forms that the practice and expression of thought will assume. My disertation would necessarily reflect both this motivation and the pressures under consideration. Would [your] readers be receptive to a shorter written work couple with a documentary, web project, etc. rather than a traditional dissertation?

I am grateful in advance for your kind attention.

I had originally written a much more fiery letter about the useless and archaic existence of the dissertation, but I toned it down a lot figuring there was no point in burning the bridge I hadn’t even come to yet.

His reply:

Thank you for your message and your interest in our Program in Philosophy and Education.  In reply to your questions, students admitted to the Ph.D. do receive extensive although not full funding.  Typically they have to provide entirely for their own living expenses while receiving tuition fellowship support.  Having a previous graduate degree (i.e. a master’s degree) significantly reduces the financial burden since previous graduate credit can often count toward the doctoral degree.  With regards to the dissertation, it is not possible to substitute alternative materials for a full-blown, formal, written research study.

This coming from a philosopher, mind you. As if there’s only one way of doing philosophy. As if the future of the intellectual enterprise is in ~300 page bricks.

I followed up with a testier inquiry:

Thank you so much for your reply! It’s gratifying to hear that your students are well-funded, but disappointing to hear that the program is methodologically conservative. I’ll have to weigh the best means of exploring my interests against the constraint of this format. 

Since you are doubtless more familiar with the landscape than I am, are there any intellectually rigorous but methodologically innovative programs in philosophy and education that you could recommend?

motherjones:

Aired Thursday morning: “All the parasites of government are now coming out of the woodwork — and that’s exactly what they are, parasites.”

Average Wisconsin public schoolteacher’s salary: $47,602.

Rush Limbaugh’s minimum annual salary: $38,000,000, plus a $100,000,000 bonus.

Parasites, indeed.

Presented without comment.

No particular meaning there, I just thought I was being clever by making a pun on “schola” and “scoliosis.” If you insist on ascribing a meaning to it, I guess you could say that there’s something crooked about education these days, and that’s what I’d like to discuss in this blog. 

I’ve spent a few years working in corporate training and, like most people, I’ve survived 12+ years of public education. It doesn’t make me an expert on education by any means, but I have some thoughts on learning and education and I’d like to share them in a relatively anonymous fashion. 

Comments and feedback most welcome!