Exactly.
Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.
Dear Reader, dear,
I’m hearing some stuff about the end of the university, or, maybe it’s the beginning… ? Well, I don’t want either. And I’m just starting up again, so give me a break! (If I haven’t told you yet, we decided, and we’re both enrolling in Talbot’s Philosophy of Religion and Ethics MA program.)
I’m talkin’ about stuff like this and this. I’m sure there’s more of it, too. We now live among a culture and people which, in this era, LOVE to pronounce the death and end of things. ‘God is dead!’ ‘Blogging is dead!’ ‘Eating food is dead!’ ‘Sleeping is so last season!’ I think this is reflective of the temptation of immediacy – to pick up and speed along. Maybe there’s even some “chronological snobbery” built into that (this “snobbery” is a term of C.S. Lewis, borrowed from fellow Inkling, Owen Barfield).
But the concerns about humanities departments (philosophy, religion, theology, english, etc.) “dying” don’t worry me. I’m not worried about going back to school. In fact, I’m more sure about this than LOTS of other decisions in my 26-year life. I’ll continue to pursue a patient spiritual, intellectual, social and academic lifestyle; and the foundation for this patience is the inherent value of thinking and contemplating (v. “to think long and lovingly” – thanks Dave Evans for that) about the world and everything, physical and non-, in it.
If there is any worry for anyone at all, the source must be the reigning (and thoroughly unwelcome, I say) pragmatism of all generations. Earlier in my life I would have said that cultural pragmatism (the kind that suggests going to college merely for a job, to make money) is a generational thing. Silly baby-boomers. But I’m starting to think it’s not generational. Worry comes in all shapes and sizes and ages and so does the pragmatism that dons the crown deep below the surface of that worry.
So I’m rebelling. I’m going to actually enjoy grad school, and I’m going to enjoy the debt we shall incur and the job scarcity and low salaries that follow from a life of academics. I’m hoping to learn a little more about the Classic, undying value for the intellectual life of mind, heart and soul, and what that means for the details of my life.
It’s gotta be a media thing – ironically enough, since ‘News is dead!” is not an uncommon hidden meaning in headlines these days. In fact, how’s “News is old!” for the next NYT headline? Double irony!!
So, media giants! you soothsayers of cultural fate! Will anything else be dead tomorrow? Pragmatists! you worrisome lot! Is anything else regrettably last season?
More importantly, and for the rest of us, is anything alive today? is anything eternal today?
FYI – I just found a follow-up column by Benton (the guy who writes for the Chronicle of Higher Education, and suggests not going go grad school in the humanities).
I feel compelled to respond to him, but I won’t. He actually seems pretty trustworthy. The situation he describes seems to be catch-22 – if everyone doesn’t take his advice and goes to grad school, we’re all screwed. if everyone does take his advice, the humanities do actually die out, and we’re all (bigger “all”) screwed.
He concedes this consolation near the end, which I shall continue to reflect on as a challenge posed.
“Perhaps members of a generation that enters graduate school with no expectations of an academic position — who never even consider, for one moment, that they will become tenure-track professors — will bring about positive change in the way things are taught. Such students will be less beholden to advisers, and empowered to demand that courses have some relationship to existing opportunities. With an eye to careers outside academe, they will challenge the tyranny of the monograph; they might seek technical skills; they will want to speak to a wider public; and they will be more open to movement between academe and the “outside world” than previous generations, who were taught to regard anything but the professorial life as failure from which one could never return.”
Gotta say, I love this sentiment – and I completely agree that those who would pronounce things “dead” or maybe just “alot worse now” should be taken with a grain of salt most of the time. I can’t count the number of articles out there advising against going to law school, and now that there’s an economic crisis, advising against going to law school because there won’t be any good jobs after graduation. The people and groups who make these kinds of statements miss the point because they forget to caveat themselves by saying – it all depends on who you are, what you’re bringing to the table, and what you hope to get out of it. At least in the case of legal education, so many people enter the field because they don’t know what else to do, or for the $$, or because they like to watch CSI. THESE are the people who will likely regret their decision and the expense, and probably the same people who will preach to the next generation “don’t do it.”
Yes. Mm. Well said. It’s all about the money.
By the way, how nice to be in the same boat again!!
Very well put, Evan, as usual. I can say that I took out loans to pay for Talbot and would never do it again. That’s just my experience. I’d be open to returning to school for PhD work, but only if I could do it on scholarship.
I’m greatly bothered by the lack of endowments and money available to Christians for graduate work at Christian universities. I’m bothered greatly that someone of your caliber, insight, potential, and drive has to take out loans. How come Christians are willing to fund church sanctuary projects, Sunday School buildings, missionaries, and other such “church” things, but we’re not willing to say to someone like you, “Here’s $60,000, out of a fund which we’ve been setting aside for Christian education, for you to go and develop your intellectual and spiritual formation so you can honor God and impact with world with it?”
The pragmatism has hit the church hard, too, so we don’t take the long view on developing the mind in the primary and university setting.
Thanks Michael. One’s check book is a great indicator of one’s values (seems that I value parking tickets… hmm), and unfortunately a sizable chunk mainline Christianity mostly values buildings, coffee shops and big salaries.
What complicates the issue are those organizations who fund great social or justice programs – really worthy, loving causes – but again, show that they don’t value education. Much like the rest of the world, we’re driven by output. And clear, right thinking isn’t really what they’re looking for. Appreciate your encouragement though.
On a personal note, Lani and I both value education, and are willing to live on the cheap and invest this way – for our contribution to our family and communities.