The Marketplace Of Ideas
Louis Menand’s book about education, “The Marketplace Of Ideas,” is under review at the NYT. Menand is a subtle writer and fine-grained thinker, so it is worthwhile paying attention, especially given the serious subject matter, and the useful summary provided by a credible reviewer.
Menand shows that general education curriculums have been criticized since their inception less for being too broad in focus than for being too narrow in intent, more invested in making education socially “relevant” than in encouraging the pursuit of knowledge for its own sake. The earliest exponents of general education — John Erskine, Jacques Barzun, Lionel Trilling, Mortimer Adler — believed in teaching students the wisdom of the ages to prepare them to confront the pressing issues of the day…
The reviewer indicates that Menand does not usefully confront the glaring, obvious distortions in contemporary education — partisanship has poisoned the landscape. A lack of overview is denied students, cultural survey courses intimidated by politically correct directives.
[Menand] … does not explain, say, why Democrats outnumber Republicans 10 to 1 in departments of physics.
Some might say, “What’s the diff?” After all, it is physicists, and their charge is fact. Fact is slippery, is the answer. And the colored glasses worn outside of a discipline can make any judgment toxic. It is the way of thinking that poisons. This seems obvious, but for Menand, perhaps, being part of the club makes one reluctant to make a hard won membership precarious in criticism.
The reviewer suggests in conclusion that a more robust look at academic prejudice might be worthwhile.
