tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3458341.post8433497419148773392..comments2024-01-06T10:36:04.084-05:00Comments on A Commonplace Blog: Academe quits meD. G. Myershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10659136455045567825noreply@blogger.comBlogger59125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3458341.post-59914888384392641012014-01-24T09:26:20.410-05:002014-01-24T09:26:20.410-05:00Edwardough G: My parents taught me that I should s...Edwardough G: My parents taught me that I should say anything about someone unless I could say something nice. But putting that aside, I think you miss the point of the posting. Most of us in academia (past and present) understand what is at stake here. It is not one person's career. It is the cultural shift leading to what it means to be educated.R.T.https://www.blogger.com/profile/13220814349193561823noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3458341.post-76174602194569123042014-01-23T15:28:14.760-05:002014-01-23T15:28:14.760-05:00You're not alone, which is either a good thing...You're not alone, which is either a good thing or a pretty depressing reminder of how disassembled things have become. I send most of my lunch hours at the mall reading novels that nobody in my office, which is full of highly educated people, has ever heard. Right now I am reading Native Realm by Milosz. In the mall food court there are many other young professionals none of whom i've ever seen with a book, but everyone's head is buried in an iphone. Maybe I am just being snobbish and unfair, but I really just think that when money is the measure of all things, the things that feed the soul just can't measure up.<br /><br />All the best.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3458341.post-85208446110982441292014-01-23T13:41:12.960-05:002014-01-23T13:41:12.960-05:00Sounds as though someone has a case of sour grapes...Sounds as though someone has a case of sour grapes. I quit reading after he picked on another school's program, they are not the ones letting him go. And any English Professor worth a tenured position wouldn't end sentences in prepositions. It's whiney bitches like this guy who make our country what it has become today.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08919316356343090319noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3458341.post-3509330448741019492014-01-22T07:18:05.187-05:002014-01-22T07:18:05.187-05:00Sadly, your article is going to linger in my bookm...Sadly, your article is going to linger in my bookmarks list. I'm certain this isn't part of the legacy you intended, D.G., however, it is prophecy.<br /><br />I'm reminded of an article in response to the annual literary blitz known as NaNoWriMo. The naysayer was pinpricking the fun on the grounds that a 50K word manuscript chunked out in a month would be pure drivel and as such, a waste of time for anyone lured into the festive nature of the event. The writer went on to prove his point with evidence that there are more books ABOUT writing sold every year than actually well written books.<br /><br />Granted, the expertise in Language Arts that you describe and decry are indicative of the pending paradigm shift against expertise, in lieu of the "amateur", I think also that there's a pendulum swing towards the process vs. the product. I think that will course correct.<br /><br />I also think enough of us exist to represent a way of life that is contrary to the profitability of these coming changes and figure out a way to protect that which we love, even if it means reinventing the infrastructure supporting that way of life.<br /><br />Hats off to you. Thank you for this piece.Eric Nentruphttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00802532456086322992noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3458341.post-12895352036952083202014-01-14T16:35:52.615-05:002014-01-14T16:35:52.615-05:00Why in the world have you rather randomly picked o...<i>Why in the world have you rather randomly picked on the University of Minnesota English department?</i><br /><br />Because the Minnesota department is a good one (if a little trendy), and because my complaint is about the <i>discipline</i>, not OSU.D. G. Myershttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10659136455045567825noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3458341.post-3085301130677619962014-01-14T14:47:51.402-05:002014-01-14T14:47:51.402-05:00I am sorry that your university has pushed you out...I am sorry that your university has pushed you out the door, professor.<br /><br />You know that you have enriched countless lives during the course of your professional career.<br /><br />My wife and I were both English majors.<br /><br />She has owned and operated a specialty shop for the last 15 years, and I have been a tax lawyer for more than 30 years.<br /><br />We hope to leave a sizeable gift to the English Department of our alma mater at our deaths.<br /><br />In the interim, we plan to make significant annual cash gifts, with a view to making much larger gifts as opportunities permit.<br /><br />B-school educates students about business models and making and selling widgets.<br /><br />But the humanities teach students creativity, a knowledge of the past, wit, a view into human nature and an appreciation of the arts.<br /><br />The choice for me was an easy one.<br /><br />molonlabe28https://www.blogger.com/profile/04936127908325143897noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3458341.post-65243376690242256652014-01-14T14:17:28.311-05:002014-01-14T14:17:28.311-05:00Why in the world have you rather randomly picked o...Why in the world have you rather randomly picked on the University of Minnesota English department? Why not write about the OSU English department offerings? That would seem more relevant to your situation.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3458341.post-61885067995261395212014-01-14T11:20:35.091-05:002014-01-14T11:20:35.091-05:00"No sympathy from this reader. You lived off ..."No sympathy from this reader. You lived off an enforced education system supported by taxpayers and a captive student body. No you can join the rest of the non-government employees and prove your worth in the free market."<br /><br />Is there really a free market over in the US? Over on this side of the pond we just assume that's all so much hot air - what with bailing out Ford Motors et al, subsidising Walmart's wage bill by providing food coupons to their employees, and grants to farmers (68% of Kansas farmers rely on subsidies to make ends meet). Not - I hasten to add - that we have a free market, either.Aonghus Fallonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09434527113873901741noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3458341.post-57600763447090716472014-01-13T12:27:54.627-05:002014-01-13T12:27:54.627-05:00“Nolite te bastardes carborundorum“
http://www.c...“Nolite te bastardes carborundorum“<br /><br /> http://www.contrariwise.org/2014/01/07/nolite-te-bastardes-carborundorum-2/mike zimhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08688913712302681707noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3458341.post-47507509304103430062014-01-13T10:22:02.176-05:002014-01-13T10:22:02.176-05:00David, your post has affected me very deeply. I a...David, your post has affected me very deeply. I am vastly disappointed that I was never able to have been a student in one of your classes, but I feel as though, having read your wonderful blog for several years now, I have had the opportunity to be a student of yours. And you are a wonderful teacher.<br /><br />The educational administrative apparatus is tyrannical. I have no other way to put it. My wife Dara will spend tomorrow in the company of our lawyer, arguing (for the fifth time in five years) that our son Levi, diagnosed as being on the Autism Spectrum with Pervasive Developmental Delays and also having a severe mood disorder, should receive the supportive educational services to which he is legally entitled. The Prince William County School System is digging in its heels because granting Levi and I.E.P. (and Individual Education Plan) would raise Coles Elementary's School's percentage of students having I.E.P.s, which would make it less likely for Coles to be designated as a Prince William County School of Excellence, which would mean they would receive fewer extra grants from the county. So my son's education is being sacrificed in the interests of bureaucratic comforts. Not only that, but they have written their seclusion policies in such a way as to hold themselves legally blameless for the psychological and physical endangerment to which they subjected my child -- forcing him into a dark printer closet, euphemistically called a Resource Room, where he would beat his fists against the door until his anxiety fit subsided. We were informed by a concerned parent that this was being done to our boy over the past year as many as eight times per day. And the bastards can legally get away with it.<br /><br />I know your heart is breaking over your situation. My heart has been broken multiple times. I spent this past Thanksgiving and Hanukkah in a psychiatric facility due to an emotional breakdown, caused primarily by my son's health and his treatment at his school.<br /><br />Yet I am taking great comfort right now in a book you have recommended to me with your blog. I am simply LOVING Francine Prose's <i>Bigfoot Dreams</i>, which I read each night before bed with great delight. With my recent tendencies towards panic attacks and heightened anxiety, I often have trouble falling asleep at night, and Francine's wonderful book helps settle my mind. I never would have picked her up without your recommendation.<br /><br />So thank you, David, for contributing in some small part to the resurgence of my mental health. Perhaps this could be a sort of new career direction for you?<br /><br />Take good care, and may God bless you and your family and keep you well.Andrew Foxhttp://www.fantasticalandrewfox.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3458341.post-85964227847508053212014-01-13T00:10:38.826-05:002014-01-13T00:10:38.826-05:00You wrote beautifully and honestly. I am sorry thi...You wrote beautifully and honestly. I am sorry this is happening, both to you and to the field. There is something important that will be lost, even if it is not the largest share of what is there now.<br /><br />Best of luck!Daniel Silveyrahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02693545001815723841noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3458341.post-75852283817059726172014-01-12T23:21:46.332-05:002014-01-12T23:21:46.332-05:00It was nice while it lasted.
A great deal of what...It was nice while it lasted.<br /><br />A great deal of what passes for literary scholarship today is borderline marketing.<br />I suspect that is not where you wish to go.<br />I do hope that you maintain your blog. ( I came here via a link on Instapundit and am always interested in good links sources, and good reads.)<br />If you know TeX I believe that there is a growing role for editors and designers in the growing self-publishing world.<br />Hopefully you bought in Bexley and not UA!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3458341.post-89864353327405945352014-01-12T21:34:33.141-05:002014-01-12T21:34:33.141-05:00Literacy is the foundation of a healthy democracy....Literacy is the foundation of a healthy democracy. Ignorance breeds tyranny.B. Glen Rotchinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05815057617780242871noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3458341.post-10794064713559250942014-01-12T20:48:50.612-05:002014-01-12T20:48:50.612-05:00A problem with college majors is the very practica...A problem with college majors is the very practical issue of making a living. Music majors, like English majors, are a dime a dozen; but unlike English majors, Music majors are weeded out early in the game, and encouraged to pursue more practical studies,with music as an avocation. Such was the case with our daughter who, though a talented singer, was discouraged from pursuing music as vocation. Instead she majored in the biological sciences, and now works as a primary care physician. <br /><br />TJGAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3458341.post-49406353242626796292014-01-12T17:05:34.502-05:002014-01-12T17:05:34.502-05:00If you had a child starting college would you disc...<i>If you had a child starting college would you discourage majoring in English or human[i]ties?</i><br /><br />Great question. My oldest kids are ten, but if they were eighteen and starting college today, no, I’d tell them to study literature but not to major in English.<br /><br />As my teacher J. V. Cunningham said, nothing that a writer or critic can learn is irrelevant to literature (except, these days, what passes under the name of literature). Especially if any of my kids wanted to be a critic or writer, I’d recommend that he or she spend most of his or her time on another side of the campus.<br />D. G. Myershttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10659136455045567825noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3458341.post-74135464401374221372014-01-12T17:04:41.927-05:002014-01-12T17:04:41.927-05:00I know the question is addressed to Prof. Myers, b...I know the question is addressed to Prof. Myers, but I am also a university teacher (literature and drama), so I feel somewhat qualified to offer a response: My son was urged to pursue his passion. I would not now change that advice, regardless of his choice of majors. Passion in life is important. After all, why pursue a degree or a career in something about which you care very little?R.T.https://www.blogger.com/profile/13220814349193561823noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3458341.post-37246573855680609832014-01-12T16:37:43.314-05:002014-01-12T16:37:43.314-05:00If you had a child starting college would you disc...If you had a child starting college would you discourage majoring in English or humanties?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3458341.post-76503068135986115562014-01-12T13:50:36.551-05:002014-01-12T13:50:36.551-05:00"[A]n enforced education system" is such..."[A]n enforced education system" is such a bone-headed notion. I know, David, that you do not need me to defend you or education, but I am glad you responded so quickly to the trollish comment. I respond with this: Would the troll have no government involvement in education? No states involved? No counties involved? No cities, towns, or townships involved He (or she) needs to think about that prospect. But perhaps his or her experience in the classroom as some lower level was no very congenial to thinking.R.T.https://www.blogger.com/profile/13220814349193561823noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3458341.post-28738494627603342032014-01-12T13:34:32.468-05:002014-01-12T13:34:32.468-05:00You lived off an enforced education system support...<i>You lived off an enforced education system supported by taxpayers and a captive student body. No[w] you can join the rest of the non-government employees and prove your worth in the free market.</i><br /><br />If you can’t see the difference between the Department of Motor Vehicles and a publicly supported university—an American idea that originated with Jefferson—then I can’t hope to explain it to you. I will say, though, that my students were hardly “captive.” They were in my classes by choice.<br />D. G. Myershttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10659136455045567825noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3458341.post-16928995033207243972014-01-12T12:41:05.393-05:002014-01-12T12:41:05.393-05:00"Traditional "brick and mortar" hig..."Traditional "brick and mortar" higher education is probably going to be extinct in a decade or two. Watch some of he speeches online that Sebastian Thurn has given" . Well, judging by Thurn's results, along with "higher education" becoming extict all education is going to be extinct too. "When the online class was compared with the in-person variety, the numbers were even more discouraging. A student taking college algebra in person was 52% more likely to pass than one taking a Udacity class". "A recent study found that only 7% of students in this type -not for profit- of class actually make it to the end". Read more http://www.fastcompany.com/3021473/udacity-sebastian-thrun-uphill-climbGrzegorz Lindenberghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02796102521940390229noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3458341.post-80200735000956577512014-01-12T11:27:59.447-05:002014-01-12T11:27:59.447-05:00No sympathy from this reader. You lived off an enf...No sympathy from this reader. You lived off an enforced education system supported by taxpayers and a captive student body. No you can join the rest of the non-government employees and prove your worth in the free market.<br /><br />If you're good at what you do, you'll prove yourself by earning a living teaching your subject to people who don't need a degree and who want to learn. <br /><br />If you fail, you have no one to blame but yourself.<br /><br />I don't expect you to post this message and we both know why.<br /><br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3458341.post-7435200080224700272014-01-12T10:13:41.370-05:002014-01-12T10:13:41.370-05:00Almost-62-year-old white female adjunct here. I te...Almost-62-year-old white female adjunct here. I teach at an urban community college, which is really an extension of an awful high school, judging by the lack of basic language and social skills I see every class. Academe becomes more depraved by the day.<br /><br />Something great is waiting for you. Stay alert.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3458341.post-27824226957150041252014-01-12T09:10:15.507-05:002014-01-12T09:10:15.507-05:00During my work to attain a English Master's fr...During my work to attain a English Master's from a local university, several esteemed (white male) professors told me privately that their comments were unwelcome these days. Indeed, the feminists ruled with iron (peevish) fists. One (white female) was thrilled to have enrolled voters during class; another (white female) screamed at me (a white female) over her shoulder that I was bothering her because I asked when my last class would be offered. I had to seek the guidance of another professor (male Lebanese) to acquire the information. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3458341.post-69640498746133575462014-01-12T02:26:46.524-05:002014-01-12T02:26:46.524-05:00Prof. Myers,
In time you'll stop seeing yours...Prof. Myers,<br /><br />In time you'll stop seeing yourself as an English professor and more as a writer. Besides English literature, do you have any hobbies? Ever try writing about something besides your academic subjects? Start selling your writing to new audiences.Ronnie Schreiberhttp://www.carsindepth.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3458341.post-260363532734912462014-01-11T23:27:38.370-05:002014-01-11T23:27:38.370-05:00Sir,
Ms Virgo, Ms Vicense, Sister Mary Ethel,...<br />Sir,<br /> Ms Virgo, Ms Vicense, Sister Mary Ethel, Sister Mary Bernard, Sister Mary Margarette, Mrs Lawton, Mrs Bissieci, Mr Kelly Prof Clough, Prof Benulus and a dozen more. I'm an engineer by birth but they helped. I hope some of your students remember what you gave them, maybe no. <br /><br />Watch this when you a the time..<br /><br />The Twilight Zone S03 E37 The Changing Of The Guard <br /><br /><br /> Good luckAnonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13510298097382929533noreply@blogger.com