An Amoral Education
It's commencement season for a lot of schools. I thought you might like to know what your tuition money is producing.
Stanley Fish is Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at the University of Illinois, Chicago. He told the New York Times that colleges should not worry about turning students into good people and should not even try. "You might just make them into good researchers," he said.
This is not a view held only by Dean Fish.
Seven years ago, John Mearsheimer, a distinguished professor of political science at the University of Chicago cited two goals a university does not pursue.
One of these "non-aims," as he called it was "providing truth." He said "we expect you to figure out the truth, if there is one."
The second "non-aim," he said is this: "the university also makes little effort to provide you with moral guidance. Indeed, it is a remarkably amoral institution."
That's obvious, given what we're getting from so many of our institutions of so-called "higher education."
Spend your tuition dollars wisely, or you may be undermining your child's education.
I'm Cal Thomas in Washington.
Cal Thomas is a nationally syndicated columnist based in Washington, D.C. Watch his television show, After Hours with Cal Thomas, on the Fox News Channel, Saturdays at 11 p.m. Eastern Time.
Originally published June 21, 2004.
