Reading Notes by Christopher Lay

Los Angeles Pierce College

Department of History, Philosophy & Sociology

Andrew Delbanco's "College at Risk"

Getting Started	Delbanco begins with a brief history of higher education. Towards the end of that history, he highlights our nation's contribution to the evolving nature of higher education.
Liberal Education and the United States' Pursuit of Happiness	"Seen in that long view, the distinctive contribution of the United States to the history of liberal education has been to deploy it on behalf of the cardinal American principle that all persons have the right to pursue happiness, and that 'getting to know,' in Matthew Arnold's much-quoted phrase, 'the best which has been thought and said in the world' is helpful to that pursuit." This should sound familiar to us.
Education & Democracy	If it doesn't, this should: "Knowledge of the past, in other words, helps citizens develop the capacity to think critically about the present–an indispensable attribute of a healthy democracy."
The Current Problem	"These ideals and achievements are among the glories of our civilization, and all Americans should be alarmed as they come to be regarded as luxuries unaffordable for all but the wealthy few."
A Source of the Problem	"Every_one who is honest about academe knows that colleges and universities tend to be wasteful and plagued by expensive redundancies." "The demand for greater efficiency is reasonable and, in some respects, belated." "The cost of college must be reined in, and its 'productivity'–in the multiple senses of student proficiency, graduation rates, and job attainment–must be improved."
Key Point: Reforms "[vs.]" Aims	"The trouble is that many reforms, and most efficiencies, whether achieved through rational planning or imposed by the ineluctable process of technological change, are at odds with practices that are essential if liberal education is to survive and thrive."
Example of Aims	"A well-managed discussion among peers of diverse interests and talents can help students learn the difference between informed insights and mere opinionating." "It can provide the pleasurable chastisement of discovering that others see the world differently, and that their experience is not replicable by, or even reconcilable with, one's own." "It is a rehearsal for deliberative democracy."
Example of Reforms "[vs.]" Aims	"Unfortunately, at many colleges, as fiscal imperatives overwhelm educational values, this kind of experience is becoming the exception more than the rule." [Aims] "The educational imperative is clear: A class should be small enough to permit every student to participate in the give-and-take of discussion under the guidance of an informed, skilled, and engaged teacher." [The Problem] "But the economic imperative is also clear: The lower the ratio between students and faculty, the higher the cost." [Reform] "One obvious way to mitigate the cost is to put fewer full-time tenured or tenure-track faculty in the classroom, and to replace them with underpaid, overworked part-timers–something that is happening at a frightening pace across the nation."
The Mythical Ideal	"In fact, most college students today have nothing like the experience preserved in myth and selective memory. For a relatively few, college remains the sort of place that Kronman, a former dean of Yale Law School, recalls from his days at Williams College, where his favorite class took place at the home of a philosophy professor whose two golden retrievers slept on either side of the fireplace 'like bookends beside the hearth' while the sunset lit the Berkshire hills 'in scarlet and gold.'"
The Majority's Reality [n.b., the majority here only refers to the majority who seek out higher education–a minority of the US population]	"But for many more students, college means the anxious pursuit of marketable skills in overcrowded, under_resourced institutions, where little attention is paid to that elusive entity sometimes called the 'whole person.'" "For still others, it means traveling by night to a fluorescent-lit office building or to a classroom that exists only in cyberspace."
The Power of the Mythical Ideal	"As we try to meet those challenges, it would be folly to dismiss as naïveté or nostalgia an abiding attachment to the college ideal–however much or little it ever conforms to reality." "The power of this ideal is evident at every college commencement in the eyes of parents who watch their children advance into life." "What parents want for their children is not just prosperity but happiness." "And though it is foolish to deny the linkage between the two, they are not the same thing."
Thesis [?]	"To succeed in sustaining college as a place where liberal learning still takes place will be very costly." "But in the long run, it will be much more costly if we fail."