Insightful Piece by George Will in the Washington Post.

Here is a link to it. Opinion | Campus pro-Palestinian protests sap universities’ prestige. Good. – The Washington Post

Here is what I posted.

This nation’s most admired observer of higher education (and a revered sociologist) saw what was happening as early as 1980.

the “wants” of students to which competing institutions, departments, and individual faculty members cater are quite different from the “needs” of students…advantage can still be taken of [students] by unscrupulous instructors and institutions. (from David Riesman’s 1980 book, On Higher Education: The Academic Enterprise in an Era of Rising Student Consumerism)

This quote also explains much of the antisemitism on campus. It explains why students know so little history, or even how to think about complex issues. They don’t think they “need” it. It explains administrators who don’t want to offend “customers” (once quaintly called students).

It’s even worse than it seems because it goes well beyond college. This happens because, as Mr. Will points out, universities “produce” “professors” who are not even competent enough to prepare high school teachers at the many regional universities where they teach. Thus, we get uneducated voters in poor and rural areas. I have personally seen examples of this.

We are in desperate time. To learn more, please go to my blog inside-higher-ed. Only public realization of what has been happening will help.