tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post334533163749033533..comments2024-03-28T06:07:03.667-04:00Comments on The Philosopher's Stone: REFLECTIONS ON A COMMENTRobert Paul Wolffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11970360952872431856noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-12801808255920716422011-01-09T16:29:50.207-05:002011-01-09T16:29:50.207-05:00@Dr. Wolff, I'm an astrophysics concentrator, ...@Dr. Wolff, I'm an astrophysics concentrator, but I've always been interested in these issues. While not much of a humanities person, I am still a leftist.<br />@coherentsheaf Cool, I'm glad someone else came. And yeah, the diversity of Harvard was definitely refreshing compared to the environment in which I grew up.Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07413582414001919448noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-16175276802210323602011-01-01T19:21:17.951-05:002011-01-01T19:21:17.951-05:00@Sam: It's weird, that's the exact same wa...@Sam: It's weird, that's the exact same way I found this blog. I'm not a humanities person, so I was really taking the course in question to fulfill a requirement, but it was more fun than I expected.<br /><br />And I have to agree -- Harvard is very diverse today, certainly more so than it was fifty years ago. My hometown is suburban; it was a huge and refreshing change to be in a less homogeneous environment when I got here.coherentsheafhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03683811799665701226noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-56996793131609096042010-12-31T20:38:23.753-05:002010-12-31T20:38:23.753-05:00Thank you so much for the comment, Sam. The answe...Thank you so much for the comment, Sam. The answer to your question is simple. As the ranks of UMass filled up with more privileged students, those no longer were able to get in went to the growing system of State and Community Colleges, and to the UMass Boston campus [as well as to the UMass Lowell campus and the Southeastern campus, whose official name I forget right now].<br /><br />By the way, when I went to Harvard in 1950 [yes, sixty years ago], nineteen hundred students applied, sixteen hundred fifty were accepted, and twelve hundred fifty showed up. It was easier to get into Harvard then than it is to get into UMass now.<br /><br />I hope you are right about the effects of the Scholars Program, as it was called. I believe it had some effect. At the very least, it achieved a very high so-called retention rate -- the percentage of students who return for the Sophomore year.<br /><br />What are you majoring in at Harvard? I was, by the way, the very first Head Tutor of Social Studies there, back in 1960-61.Robert Paul Wolffhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11970360952872431856noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-74294593248684449682010-12-31T18:45:57.489-05:002010-12-31T18:45:57.489-05:00I'm a Harvard student, and I recently started ...I'm a Harvard student, and I recently started reading your blog (a teaching fellow from my general education class that read your book on anarchism sent out the link.) I can affirm from experience that Harvard is populated mostly by students to whom "school has been good," although I think from comparing experiences with my father (who is 41 years older than me) Harvard has made substantial headway in improving certain diversities of background. Still, you are right that for almost all Harvard students education has been an affirming opportunity for years, if not their entire lives. This was certainly the case for me from childhood.<br />I was wondering, if the members of the upper middle class began increasingly sending their children to UMass, where did the more economically disadvantaged populations who had formerly attended go?<br />Finally, I wanted to commend you for your participation in the program you discussed in your comment, Dr. Wolff. It is indeed true that a single successful experience can instill confidence that can completely alter one's academic career, and it is admirable that you devoted some of your time to providing such an experience for some of the most disadvantaged students at your school. I can only imagine how many students had a fundamentally better college experience because of you.Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07413582414001919448noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-49175242953055918052010-12-31T12:47:58.640-05:002010-12-31T12:47:58.640-05:00That is very interesting, and shrewd. The money q...That is very interesting, and shrewd. The money quote, as they like to say on blogs, is "school has been good to them." Exactly so. From infancy, those Harvard students have been accustomed to treating formal education as an affirming opportunity, someplace where they do well and can expect to be complimented.<br /><br />At UMass, I created and ran for some years [on grants] a program for minority Freshmen, helping them make the transition to university education. These were not select students but ordinary kids from mostly almost all minority high schools. Each student was requried to do an independent research project, chosen by the student, and with lots of help from a teacher whose class had five [yes, five] students in it. At the end of the year students, at a final dinner, made brief public presentations of their work, which was then desktop published by me in a volume and distributed to them the next Fall when they returned. It was astonishing how much confidence they acquired as a consequence of this experience.Robert Paul Wolffhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11970360952872431856noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-90523673198606480922010-12-31T11:55:42.888-05:002010-12-31T11:55:42.888-05:00This is really interesting. When I drove through ...This is really interesting. When I drove through UMass, I kept repeating to myself "This is a public school?" <br /><br />I was struck while watching Michael Sandel's Justice Seminar that is now on-line. (Sandel is another topic, I'm sure.) What struck me is the absolute lack of background presumed by Sandel. <br /><br />Philosophy offers massive egalitarian potential, if students would only believe it. When Sandel asks Harvard students a hard question, they throw out an answer with a hint of sheepishness that is greeted with a solidaristic laugh. School has been good to them. <br /><br />Other students who aren't sure of an answer to a tough question conclude that they shouldn't be here. Unions and fraternal organization provide alternative venues that provide recognition. <br /><br />The denial of recognition is often a matter of pure prejudice. Many people saw school as one long lecture on which fork to use. I mentioned to one class that I was sick of hearing students call each other "faggot". Most agreed. Some saw it as another elitist word game. They are less likely to visit the symphony or listen to a professor's concerns about global warming. <br /><br />All is not lost. Gains are made if journals and schools are persistent and oriented towards truth.Murfmenschhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00031877154740991965noreply@blogger.com