Dear Karl,
Thank you for your well considered comments on the article. You have made
some excellent points that have helped me to crystallise some of my
thinking. Is this an example of Richard Dawkins’ memes?
I am currently writing a book on business and political strategy,
incorporating future trends.( I am an economist and business and future
trends analyst - having completed an MBA later in life, after several years
in teaching at all levels) I consequently spend a lot of my day trawling
through newspapers and journals for clues. As this is an enormous task, any
help from the group would be much appreciated. The book was originally
researched around the title ‘From Knowledge to Wisdom’ – until I discovered
that a philosopher, who turned out to be Nick, had already written one with
that title. I am now thinking of calling it Quo Vardis? Any comments?
As a general question to anyone reading this, would you welcome articles
like this one as and when I find them? Or for that matter, on any other
topic of interest to anyone in the group? I do not want to simply clog up
your mail boxes with stuff you have already seen or don’t want. We all
suffer from information overload as it is. I have a very good article on
UFT and Einstein from Time magazine of February 1929, just after the theory
was made public that describes UFT as it was perceived at the time. If
anyone in the group would find that helpful, please let me know. I have
gigabytes of articles on all sorts of topics and access to many information
sources.
Two of my favourite Einstein quotes are:
It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education
The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources (source
unknown)
Best wishes
Cherryl
_____
From: Group concerned that academia should seek and promote wisdom
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Karl Rogers
Sent: 16 May 2006 2:55 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: FOR YOUR INTEREST
Dear Cherryl Martin,
Thank you for posting this article. It was interesting.
In my opinion, it is quite indicative of the hidden agenda that is
increasingly apparent behind the editorials and commentary of The New York
Times. More and more this newspaper is rejecting its former role as a
critical newspaper and, instead, is adopting its role as a megaphone for
business and government.
While I am not qualified nor inclined to defend the French state run
university system, I think that there is plenty within The New York Times
article which reveals its priorities.
It is evident that its two main sources of concern is the political
radicalism of the French students and the resistance by French academics and
students to privatisation of the state run university system. It seems to me
that if both the majority of students and the professors are content with
the current system then why should it change or be reformed (apart from
receiving more money from the government to reduce class sizes, provide
adequately sized examination halls, more computers, more library facilities,
etc.)?
After all, as the article recognises, the universities in France tend to
prioritise local residents -- with the expectation that students will attend
the nearest university to their home and secondary school. Most of the
studeents attending universities, such as the University of Paris, already
know Paris well and do not need a university run campus social network.
There is little need for on campus social facilities for people who are
already knowledgeable of Paris. French students socialise off campus and are
already integrated into their local community. So, why would the students of
Paris need the campus caferteria to stay open after lunch? Why would a
university campus IN PARIS (of all places) need its own bookstore? Why would
it need a student centre or freshman orientation? And, given that French
students have a long tradition of running their own newspapers, why would
they need an official student newspaper? Why would anyone who knows Paris
well stay on campus after lectures have ended and the library has closed?
There would be no reason to. Perhaps the lonely law student mentioned in The
New Times article should buy a local guide to Paris. He just might find a
cinema and somewhere to hang out.
It seems that the source of lamentation is that the French state-run
university system is clearly squandering commerical opportunities to profit
from its students! I think that the priorities of The New York Times shows
itself when it protests the lack of a "corportate recruiting system" and
complains that the universities (i.e. the students and professors) are
"resistant to the changes demanded by the outside world" (i.e. big business
and commerce). After all, what would be the point of obtaining a degree in
philosophy, unless one could become a financial analyst?
While The New York Times clearly hails the US education system as being the
model that all should emulate, finding a French former minister of
education, Claude Allegre to pronounce it as "one of the drivers of American
prosperty", it has somewhat conveniently turned a blind eye to the massive
problems with the US education system (as well as the massive debt of the
USA). There is a growing economic divide in the USA. Increasingly it is the
case that (alongside health care costs) providing for one's childrens'
education is a massive burden on middle class families. Many families simply
cannot afford to send children to universities and there is a growing
reflection of the economic class-system being reflected in the university
system, where the wealthy attend the best universities and the poorest
barely receive a high school education. Given that the federal government
has cut back massively on grants and scholarships, in order to fund the war
in Iraq (and elsewhere) and pay for the non-bid contracts to reconstruct New
Orleans. Many students are forced to take out private loans for their
education or simply go without. Alongside this, there is a program of
legislation working through Congress which is designed to restrict the
political content of university education, preventing lecturers from
"unfairly criticising" the views of conservative students, making it
compulsory for universities to adopt "a balanced" represention of government
policy, and limiting the time spent discussing "controversial issues", such
as the war in Iraq, the Israeli-Palestine situation, and US foreign policy
in Latin America.
It seems that the concern expressed by The New York Times is that French
students are resisting paying for their own "job training", which is
something that corporations consider the role of universities to be, not
themselves being willing to waste their own time and money on doing this.
But, it seems to me, that the main source of concern (for both the owners of
The New York Times and the French government) is the radical
politicalisation of French students and their effectiveness is generating
support from outside the university. It is simply false that the predominant
concern among the students was that their degrees would not help them find
jobs. Their concern was that, once again, workers' rights were being eroded
in favour of big business. There is a long tradition of an alliance between
students and workers in France, and, this time it was the future workers'
rights of the students that were being threatened. And, one may ask, if
French students expected unemployment or low paid work to follow on from
their education, why would they be concerned about their rights as long-term
workers? We should not be surprised that The New York Times considers the
problems to stem from the student revolts of the late sixties and their
successful achievement of their demand that university education should be
free for all. Its does not need any argument, from The New York Times, to
assert that it is obvious that the value of a university education pluments,
if large numbers of people can have one. It seems that it is essential that
a university education should be only available to the few. And this would
indeed be the case, if France were to emulate the American model. But, as
Lenny Bruce once quipped, one needs to be asleep to believe the American
Dream.
It seems that it is evidently the conclusion of The New York Times piece
that students need to pay high fees, be placed under enormous debt, and only
focus on aquiring the skills needed as employees. This will dampen their
proclavities causing problems!
However, it seems that the French students and professors seem, at least for
a while longer, content to cause such problems and defend the humanistic
tradition of their university system.
I wish them the best of luck,
Karl
Cherryl Martin <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
HYPERLINK "http://www.nytimes.com/"HYPERLINK
"http://www.nytimes.com/"HYPERLINK "http://www.nytimes.com/"The New York
TimesHYPERLINK "http://www.nytimes.com/"HYPERLINK "http://www.nytimes.com/"
HYPERLINK
"http://www.nytimes.com/adx/bin/adx_click.html?type=goto&page=www.nytimes.co
m/printer-friendly&pos=Position1&camp=foxsearch2006-emailtools06-nyt5&ad=Wat
er_logo_88x31_2K.gif&goto=http://clk.atdmt.com/ORG/go/nwyrkfxs0040000007org/
direct;at.orgfxs00000890/01/" \nPrinter Friendly Format Sponsored By
_____
May 12, 2006
Higher Learning in France Clings to Its Old Ways
By HYPERLINK
"http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/s/elaine_sciolin
o/index.html?inline=nyt-per"ELAINE SCIOLINO
NANTERRE, HYPERLINK
"http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/fr
ance/index.html?inline=nyt-geo"France — There are 32,000 students at the
Nanterre campus of the University of Paris, but no student center, no
bookstore, no student-run newspaper, no freshman orientation, no corporate
recruiting system.
The 480,000-volume central library is open only 10 hours a day, closed on
Sundays and holidays. Only 30 of the library's 100 computers have Internet
access.
The campus cafeterias close after lunch. Professors often do not have office
hours; many have no office. Some classrooms are so overcrowded that at exam
time many students have to find seats elsewhere. By late afternoon every day
the campus is largely empty.
Sandwiched between a prison and an unemployment office just outside Paris,
the university here is neither the best nor the worst place to study in this
fairly wealthy country. Rather, it reflects the crisis of France's archaic
state-owned university system: overcrowded, underfinanced, disorganized and
resistant to the changes demanded by the outside world.
"In the United States, your university system is one of the drivers of
American prosperity," said Claude Allègre, a former education minister who
tried without success to reform French universities. "But here, we simply
don't invest enough. Universities are poor. They're not a priority either
for the state or the private sector. If we don't reverse this trend, we will
kill the new generation."
It was student discontent on campuses across France that fired up the recent
protests against a law that would have made it easier for employers to
dismiss young workers. College students were driven by fear that their
education was worth little and that after graduation they would not find
jobs.
The protests closed or disrupted a majority of France's universities for
weeks, labor unions declared solidarity and eventually the government was
forced to withdraw the law.
"Universities are factories," said Christine le Forestier, 24, a 2005
graduate of Nanterre with a master's degree who has not found a stable job.
"They are machines to turn out thousands and thousands of students who have
learned all about theory but nothing practical. A diploma is worth nothing
in the real world."
The problems stem in part from the student revolts of May 1968, which grew
out of an unexceptional event at Nanterre the year before. One March
evening, male students protesting the sexual segregation of the dormitories
occupied the women's dormitory and were evicted by the police.
A year later, Nanterre students protesting the war in Vietnam occupied the
administration building, the first such action by students at a French
university. The student revolt spread, turning into a mass movement aimed at
transforming the authoritarian, elitist French system of governance.
Ultimately 10 million workers left their jobs in a strike that came close to
forcing de Gaulle from power.
One result was that the country's university system guaranteed a free — or
almost free — college education to every high school graduate who passed the
baccalauréat exam. University enrollment soared. The value of a bachelor's
degree plummeted.
But the state failed to invest much in buildings, facilities and professors'
salaries to make the system work. Today the French government allocates
about $8,500 a year to each university student, about 40 percent less than
what it invests in each high school student.
Most students are required to attend the universities closest to their high
schools. Although certain universities excel in specific fields of study,
the course offerings in, say, history or literature are generally the same
throughout the country.
Compounding the problem, France is caught between its official promotion of
the republican notion of equality and its commitment to the nurturing of an
elite cadre of future leaders and entrepreneurs.
Only 4 percent of French students make it into the most competitive French
universities — the public "grandes écoles." But the grandes écoles, along
with a swath of semiprivate preparatory schools, absorb 30 percent of the
public budget.
They are well-organized, well-equipped, overwhelmingly white and upper
middle class, and infused with the certainty that their graduates will take
the best jobs in government and the private sector. Students are even paid
to attend.
The practice in the United States of private endowments providing a large
chunk of college budgets is seen as strange in France. Tuition is about $250
a year, hardly a sufficient source of income for colleges.
But asking the French to pay more of their way in college seems out of the
question. When the government proposed a reform in 2003 to streamline
curriculums and budgets by allowing each university more flexibility and
independence, students and professors rebelled.
They saw the initiative as a step toward privatization of higher education
that they feared would lead to higher fees and threaten the universal right
of high school graduates to a college education. The government backed down.
At Nanterre, Alexandre Frydlender, 19, a second-year student in law and
history, complained about the lack of courses in English for students of
international law. But asked whether he would be willing to pay a higher fee
for better services, he replied: "The university is a public service. The
state must pay."
A poster that hangs throughout the campus halls echoed that sentiment: "To
study is a right, not a privilege."
Professors lack the standing and the salaries of the private sector. A
starting instructor can earn less than $20,000 a year; the most senior
professor in France earns about $75,000 a year. Research among the faculty
is not a priority.
Because students generally are required to attend the university closest to
home, most do not live on campus.
At Nanterre, for example, there are only 1,050 dormitory rooms and a long
waiting list. The amenities are few. Twenty-two students share three
toilets, three showers and a small kitchen furnished with only a sink and a
few electric burners.
"There's no place where students can hang out, no place to play cards or to
watch a movie," said Jean Giraud, 20, a second-year law student who lives in
one of the dorms. "People come for class and then go home."
While students are ready to protest against something they dislike, there is
little sense of belonging or pride in one's surroundings. During the recent
protests over the contested labor law, that attitude of alienation
contributed to the destruction of property, even computers and books, at
some universities.
The protests also were the latest warning to the French government and
private corporations that the university system needs fixing. Officials,
entrepreneurs, professors and students alike agree that too many students
are stuck in majors like sociology or psychology that make it difficult to
move into a different career in a stratified society like France, given the
country's troubled economy.
The fear of joblessness has led many young people in different directions.
Students who have the money are increasingly turning to foreign universities
or private specialized schools in France, especially for graduate school.
And more young people are seeking a security-for-life job with a government
agency.
In a speech at the Sorbonne in late April after the labor law was rescinded,
Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin pledged "a new pact between the
university and the French people."
Mr. de Villepin, a graduate of the École Nationale d'Administration, the
grandest of the grandes écoles, promised more money and more flexibility,
saying that as in the United States, a student with a master's degree in
philosophy should be able to become a financial analyst.
When a student asked him to explain how he proposed to do that, Mr. de
Villepin had no concrete answer. Instead he talked about the "happiness of
the dog that leaves its kennel."
But flexibility is not at all the tradition in France, where students are
put on fixed career tracks at an early age.
"We are caught in a world of limits where there's no such thing as the
self-made man," said Claire de la Vigne, a graduate of Nanterre who is now
doing graduate work at the much more prestigious Institut d'Études
Politiques de Paris. "We are never taught the idea of the American dream,
where everything is possible. Our guide is fear."
HYPERLINK "http://www.nytimes.com/"Home
*
--
No virus found in this incoming message.
Checked by AVG Free Edition.
Version: 7.1.392 / Virus Database: 268.5.6/338 - Release Date: 12-5-2006
--
No virus found in this outgoing message.
Checked by AVG Free Edition.
Version: 7.1.392 / Virus Database: 268.5.6/3338 - Release Date: 12-5-2006
--
No virus found in this incoming message.
Checked by AVG Free Edition.
Version: 7.1.392 / Virus Database: 268.5.6/339 - Release Date: 14/05/2006
--
No virus found in this outgoing message.
Checked by AVG Free Edition.
Version: 7.1.392 / Virus Database: 268.5.6/339 - Release Date: 14/05/2006
Send instant messages to your online friends http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com
--
No virus found in this incoming message.
Checked by AVG Free Edition.
Version: 7.1.392 / Virus Database: 268.5.6/339 - Release Date: 14/05/2006
--
No virus found in this outgoing message.
Checked by AVG Free Edition.
Version: 7.1.392 / Virus Database: 268.5.6/339 - Release Date: 14/05/2006
