Yesterday while mechanically applying yet another layer of filler to the walls of the last room in the new abode, I became tired of the violent music being played on Triple J and switched to Radio National. Just in time to hear the replay of a lecture given initially on the 26 August 09 by the Vice-Chancellor of Macquarie University, Steven Schwartz, who was asking the question: What is the role of universities today? His answer: Universities once had clear ethical purposes but over the years we have lost our moral direction.
And so say all of us.
Shwartz was an entertaining and obviously well practised orator, he covered a lot of ground. But his core message never wavered and he made a very clear statement about the role of universities in an economically rationalist global environment, that is: you can't and shouldn't measure the value of everything in dollars, particularly education. And that you can't make assumptions about value either.
Plato said 'if you ask what is the good of education, the answer is easy - that education makes good people and good people act nobly'. The first European universities were founded 800 years ago under the assumption that the purpose of education was to forge character. This sentiment persisted for almost 700 years into the 19th century.
The full transcript is available on the link in the title. Schwartz presents a comprehensive and balanced argument and in his own words is not naive, but offers a refreshing alternative to the stagnant democratic double-bind we have fallen into ie 'everyone has a right to act the way they want, but no-one is responsible'. We seem to have completely disregarded the other side of the democratic coin, the one I am always grinding into my own students: with freedom comes responsibility.
And so say all of us.
Shwartz was an entertaining and obviously well practised orator, he covered a lot of ground. But his core message never wavered and he made a very clear statement about the role of universities in an economically rationalist global environment, that is: you can't and shouldn't measure the value of everything in dollars, particularly education. And that you can't make assumptions about value either.
Plato said 'if you ask what is the good of education, the answer is easy - that education makes good people and good people act nobly'. The first European universities were founded 800 years ago under the assumption that the purpose of education was to forge character. This sentiment persisted for almost 700 years into the 19th century.
Schwartz was unapologetic and delightfully non-politically correct in his view that the role of the university, particularly the one where he works, still has a moral obligation to society. He stated emphatically that 'education is, or should be, a moral enterprise' and outlined the changes that Macquarie has made to its courses to reflect the underlying belief in educating the whole individual. I love Mr Schwartz, I am so relieved to find someone in authority with responsibility who is not afraid to openly challenge an entrenched and destructive contemporary cultural belief, which, as an artist I predictably find soul-destroying. Now I just really want to go to Macquarie uni !
The full transcript is available on the link in the title. Schwartz presents a comprehensive and balanced argument and in his own words is not naive, but offers a refreshing alternative to the stagnant democratic double-bind we have fallen into ie 'everyone has a right to act the way they want, but no-one is responsible'. We seem to have completely disregarded the other side of the democratic coin, the one I am always grinding into my own students: with freedom comes responsibility.
