Deplorable... If Only It Were True

I agree that this woman's claim is pretty much bogus -- a combination of willful misinterpretation of pedogogical theory and pure fantasy. Not to mention offensive.

In fairness, however, I very nearly accepted my offer of admission to Bard College in 1997, and the final nail in the coffin of my increasing concerns about the robustness of the academics came at the event held for accepted students who were deciding if they should accept the offer. It was a panel discussion with a group of current students, and the first question was "I don't like to read. . . I hear you have to do a lot of reading at Bard. . . so should I not come here?" The first panelist answered without a moment's hesitation "Oh, you don't have to do anything you don't want to do at Bard." On the other hand, the engish class I sat in on was excellent, and these were those dark days before Kyle Gann arrived. . .

Galen, I'm sure that the college president winced and that whatever faculty were present covered their faces. And Bard's gotten a lot more rigorous since then. 1997 was the year I arrived, actually.

While the tone of the original claim is hyperbolic, it's nonetheless true that the prevailing pedagogical model on most smaller campuses nowadays is "student centered." When we search for faculty in my department (of English, at a small but "highly selective" and generally conservative university) the teaching statements from potential candidates are invariably about "facilitating discussion" and creating "a nonhierarchical learning environment." That's all well and good, when done well. But the idea has gradually forced out of the humanties academy the idea that lecturing, or the "faculty centered classroom" might, at times, be both a good thing, and even a superior pedagogical model. As an undergraduate I wanted to hear my professors talk more than my peers: my fellow students were interesting, and capable of fine insights, but I knew that my professors knew a lot more than I did, and that's why I was in college. I should note that I am in no way a curmudgeon or member of any derriere-garde (does that mean "cover your behind?") either aesthetically or politically (after all, here I am reading about Elodie Lauten and Charlemagne Palestine). I'm still slightly on the near side of 50 (and thus haven't yet seen the same things that Satie didn't get). But there have indeed been ideological shifts in education that are worth evaluating in good faith.