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Scolarship for Scholarship's Sake

Many of you know I have a bee in my bonnet about this topic. Here is an interesting article I found today

http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=26&storycode=408474&c=1

I think it has a lot to say. Why shouldn't we learn for the sake of it? Is that so wrong?

Comments

Dr J said…
I don't know, Jenny. I think about this issue all the time. Mostly, while I love what I do and I love what I study, I do recognize that I will eventually need to earn enough to feed myself, and there are just not that many places willing to pay for my obscure, esoteric skills. I am humbly grateful to my funding agency for funding my research, but I am well-aware that mine is one of the research titles that will be seized upon by angry tax-payers as an example of uselessness. So I guess what I am trying to say is that while I can justify learning for the sake of it, I'm not sure that having a closed system wherein we just impart that irrelevant knowledge to eager young minds who will go on to seek their own dark corner to study for the sake of it, is justifiable.
Saturday, November 14, 2009 5:26:00 pm
Jenny said…
I think there's room for all. But it makes me sad that learning because you love learning, rather than it necessarily being of use is so maligned.

I think I'm just cynical about the very target/product driven culture that we live in. It manifests in these strange fixations...
Sunday, November 15, 2009 10:39:00 pm
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