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Speaking OutDebating Our Mission: Part IIProfessor Johns (Speaking Out, August Advocate) is right when she notes that the role of higher education is broader than to "produce the workers corporations need," but neither is it our role to promote an anti-business notion of "justice, equity, and sustainability." Students should develop their powers of critical thinking, but that is not the same as adopting an anti-mass consumption, egalitarian, and anti-technology political agenda. Having spent considerable time in poor countries, I would argue that there is much to be said for mass consumption. Funny, isn't it, that so many people who are not exposed to the evils of mass consumption resort to almost anything to emigrate to "consumer societies" like the United States? Having nearly lost a daughter to a disease that modern medicine had only recently learned to treat, I think there is much to be said for technology. As an amateur musician, I think there is much to be said for the "elitist" world of patrons who supported Beethoven and Hayden, as opposed to the dross of "egalitarian" cultures, be they "pop" or "socialist realist." Why shouldn't students learn some useful skills while in college, the possession of which might cause someone outside of academe or politics to gainfully employ them? There is also little to fear from a "corporate agenda." There are thousands of corporations out in the world, and they don't all have the same agenda. They are not immortal and all-powerful. Three quarters of those on the 1960 Fortune 500 list are gone, replaced by firms that served society better. The people who make up corporations are diverse in backgrounds and opinions. The CEOs of Comsat, Hewlett-Packard, and Matell-and the CFO of Boeing-are women. The CEOs of American Express, Picturetel, Maytag, and Godfather's Pizza are Black. CEOs in Silicon Valley are Algerian, Indian, Korean, Hungarian and from other cultures and origins. In capitalism, one gets to choose for whom to work-sometimes, even the choice of working for oneself or starting up a firm. If students are to have full, rich lives, why shouldn't they learn about the economic world during their college years? War is too important to be left to generals, and the business life of our country and globe is too important to be denigrated or marginalized in the higher education curriculum.
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I'd like to Say...Professor Johns's fear that higher education may be driven by the need to prepare employees for the Information Age at the expense of philosophy, ethics, art, and social issues (August Speaking Out) is a very narrow view of higher education. The majority of programs in higher education---including those whose focus is to provide employees for the Information Age--- require courses in an array of non-technical areas, including the social sciences, art, and philosophy. To disdain the economic needs of our citizens moves us back to an era where only the wealthy benefited from higher education. ---Janet Black I must admit that after reading Steve Robinson's glowing review of interest-based bargaining (June Speaking Out), I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. I fully understand why our district embraces this form of negotiations. Far from being a "win-win" situation, it's been a stalling tactic, giving the district the appearance of being sincere while it throws up so many road blocks that little to nothing gets done. ---Lin Fraser |
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