TITLE: Quick Hits at the University
AUTHOR: Eugene Wallingford
DATE: March 30, 2016  3:21 PM
DESC: 
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BODY:
This morning I read three pieces with some connection to
universities and learning.  Each had a one passage that
made me smart off silently as I pedaled.

From
<A HREF="http://nhpr.org/post/humanities-whats-big-idea">
   The Humanities: What's The Big Idea?</A>:

<BLOCKQUOTE><EM>
 Boyarin describes his own research as not merely
 interdisciplinary but "deeply post-disciplinary."  (He jokes
 that when he first came to Berkeley, his dream was to be 5
 percent in 20 departments.)
</EM></BLOCKQUOTE>

Good luck getting tenure that way, dude.

"Deeply post-disciplinary" is a great bit of new academic
jargon.  Universities are very much organized by discipline.
Figuring out how to support scholars who work outside the lines
is a perpetual challenge, one that we really should address at
scale if we want to enable universities to evolve.

From
<A HREF="http://www.vox.com/2016/3/14/11222482/bernie-sanders-free-college">
   this article</A>
on Bernie Sanders's free college plan:

<BLOCKQUOTE><EM>
 Big-picture principles are important, but implementation is
 important, too.
</EM></BLOCKQUOTE>

Hey, maybe he
<A HREF="http://www.cs.uni.edu/~wallingf/blog/archives/monthly/2010-12.html#e2010-12-01T15_45_40.htm">
   just needs a programmer</A>.

Implementing big abstractions is hard enough when the substance
is technical.  When you throw in social systems and politics,
implementing any idea that deviates very far from standard
practice becomes almost impossible.
<A HREF="http://www.laputan.org/mud/">
   Big Ball of Mud</A>,
indeed.

From
<A HREF="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/50090.Yours_Isaac_Asimov">
   Yours, Isaac Asimov: A Life in Letters</A>:

<BLOCKQUOTE><EM>
 Being taught is the intellectual analog of being loved.
</EM></BLOCKQUOTE>

I'll remind my students of this tomorrow when I give them Exam 3,
on syntactic abstraction.  "I just called to say 'I love you'."

Asimov is right.  When I think back on all my years in school,
I feel great affection for so many of my teachers, and I recall
feeling their affection for me.  Knowledge is not only power, says
Asimov; it is happiness.  When people help me learn they offer me
knew ways to be happy.

(<A HREF="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/46654.The_Foundation_Trilogy">
    The Foundation Trilogy</A>
makes me happy, too.)
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