No writer was more attuned to the conflation of energy and election in the classroom than Muriel Spark. Her fictional creation Miss Jean Brodie, a teacher of intensity if ever there was one, is filled with contempt for what she calls "this educational factory" that is the Marcia Blaine School for Girls. She sees herself as "a leaven in the lump." A poster on the walls depicts a gray Stanley Baldwin, Britain’s longstanding Conservative leader, with the caption "Safety First." But "safety does not come first," Brodie tells her girls. "Goodness, Truth and Beauty come first." Art and philosophy are the most sacred subjects, the highest calling; science is the lowest, the stuff of jobs and Bunsen burners.
Monday, May 14, 2018
Hmm …
… The Erotic Professor - The Chronicle of Higher Education. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
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I'm not sure I see the point of the article. Is it that the randy professors at the Ivies and Chicago need a heavier teaching load to drain their libidoes? Is it that we need a massive reform of education from kindergarten up to bring everyone to a level at which they are qualified to sit at feet or in the laps of the erotic professors? If the point is a wish that Figlerowicz and Ramachandran will, as suggested in that great academic movie "Horse Feathers", "drill a hole in [themselves] and let the sap run out", well, who could argue?
ReplyDeleteThat was pretty much my impression, George. I really didn’t know exactly what the point was, and it was so outside my own experience — I did teach freshman English in college once, and this just did not resonate
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