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Monday, July 11, 2005

A MUDDLE


"They had not the apparatus for judging," writes EM Forster's narrator, in A Passage to India, of various characters' attempts to understand India. UD'd say the same for the Pennsylvania state legislature as it begins to constitute a committee to judge the intellectual diversity of the state's university system.

Hiram Hover has the correct, non-hysterical take on the matter.

But is this really such a victory [for the Academic Bill of Rights]? Certainly, it's several steps from being a win for the ABOR. Remember, when legislators can’t be bothered to legislate, they investigate. And in this case, the resolution's sponsor doesn't expect a report for almost a year and half.

Yes, the investigation will be a nuisance to Pennsylvania educators, and yes, the sound of [David] Horowitz braying “VICTORY!” is never welcome. But he brays a lot, and this inquiry may well do no more to advance his cause than similar hearings in Florida earlier this year, which proved a bust, and left the ABOR dead in the water there.



Instead of trying to define, understand, and measure something they haven't the apparatus for, the legislature should encourage the public universities in Pennsylvania to give their graduating students simple exit exams so the taxpayers funding the universities can find out if students know any more after four years in the universities than they did after four years of high school.
Posted at: 7/11/2005 04:00:00 AM