College: What it was, is, and should be

That's the title of the new book I'm reading by Andrew Delbanco.

This doesn't really apply to my teaching.  I just saw it recommended somewhere for students interested in attending college.  And since the majority of kids I teach are not only planning on going to college, they, in fact, are earning college credit while taking my courses, I thought it worth a read.

Plus, I loved my college experience.  I wouldn't trade it for anything.  So reading this book gives me a greater appreciation for that.

Here is one of my favorite quotes - from the chapter "What is College for?"

"About a hundred years ago, a professor of moral philosophy at Oxford, John Alexander Smith, got to the nub of the matter [that is, what is college for?].  'Gentlemen,' he said to the incoming class (the students were all men in those days), 'Nothing that you will learn in the course of your studies will be of the slightest possible use to you in the afterlife -- save only this -- that if you work hard and intelligently you should be able to detect when a man is talking rot, and that, in my view, is the main, if not the sole, purpose of education.' Americans tend to prefer a two-syllable synonym, bullshit, for the one-syllable Anglicism, rot -- and os we might say that the most important thing one can acquire in college is a well-functioning bullshit meter. It's a technology that will never become obsolete."