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I just posted this to the Classics List, but it seems even more pertinent here. ----- While the tenured among you cruise along in relative lifetime comfort, your students will face a lifetime of nonrecourse debt to fund a college education as touted so important in the US. I exclude the small percentage of children from the 1% or even the 10~20%. First some economic facts. Student loan debt outstanding in 2008 was $730 billion, of which the federal government was responsible for $120 billion. Today there is about $1.2 trillion in outstanding student debt with the government responsible for some $716 billion. The average student loan debt as of August, 2013, was $26,000. Since students face a dismal employment market with no future improvement, that nonrecourse debt will take decades to liquidate. For those well above the average debt, especially graduate students, they will be paying into their 50s and 60s and 70s. Bankruptcy is not an option, and nonpayment will lead to garnishing of wages or the gestapo actions of collection agencies. Now why do I, in an obviously provocative style, call the tenured "passive"? Because they know the economic facts but still encourage students in dead-end majors, all of the humanities in essence, to continue their studies. The honest among you will warn students away from any discipline that has no economic future despite the consequences to your department; the rest will collect their benefits with pretended ignorance or outright indifference. Why should anyone other than the children of the wealthy pursue a Classics degree? The answer is, none should. Why, for that matter, should any student spend thousands of dollars on an intensive summer class in Greek and Latin of the sort Hardy Hansen has advertised here: http://www.brooklyn.cuny.edu/web/academics/centers/lginst.php On paper this looks like an outstanding program, but please review the tuition and then add in (for nonresidents) housing, food, insurance, books and all the other ancillary expenses of life in the big city. There is absolutely no reason for anyone to pursue summer or degree courses in the Classics. There are many good books on the market and abundant online support services for free. Any graduate student reading this should save money and work alone or in a small circle of like-minded studiers. No teacher I've ever had in formal language instruction (Italian, German and Russian) helped me very much. I learned despite their efforts, most effectively by living in the respective countries with relative poverty may I say. When you're young, poverty is a great teacher. For the young, do not throw up illusory barriers. Sit down and work! I never had the benefit of a university course in Japanese, so I sat down with the two massive tomes of Anthony Alfonso's "Japanese Language Patterns" and worked through them while listening and speaking Japanese. Then, and by far the most difficult, I took up the three volumes of his "The Japanese Writing System" and worked through them to the end. Attic Greek is really quite simple by comparison. Now I'm learning Arabic, which along with Sanskrit should be part of the Classical languages. Selflimitation is our greatest impediment. I warned this list about the economic facts over a decade ago, but no one listened. Now most of the passive professoriate, thinking of their own debts and families, will rarely do anything to impede students from life-breaking loan debts. Those who do, and I know some of you, are quiet about it. Well, when does remaining quiet become complicity? As I've also said in the past here, my children stayed far away from the humanities. Chris (Sewanee, UIllinois) majored in mathematics with a PhD in the incredibly complex mathematics of contact geometry and now teaches mathematics. Anna (Cornell, McCormick School of Engineering) with an an MS in chemical and biological engineering now heads the Interstate Technology and Regulatory Council in Washington, DC. Great picture of her there--looks just like me. They are the golden apples of my life! I would implore prospective students, graduate students and honest teachers to stop the conspiracy of silence about student loan debt. Broadcast it widely with all the consequences, and then see who majors in the humanities. Greek and Latin have always survived by private study and always will. And, as we say in Japanese, じやあ、またね。 -- Steven Willett [log in to unmask] [log in to unmask] [log in to unmask] US phone: (503) 390-1070 Japan phone: (053) 475-4714