If at First You Don’t Succeed, Quit

The title of this first selection turns away from a familiar adage to characterize a condition which Steven Cahn sees as all too common among students in today’s colleges and universities. Even worse, according to the author, is the willingness of those colleges and universities to contribute to that condition. From these premises, it is only a short step to conclude that any institution that permits students to indulge themselves in the manner outlined here can only contribute ultimately to the decay of our democracy. In laying out his argument, Cahn employs a three-part structure, moving from statement of problem to cause to effect. Look for this organizational pattern in your reading.

(1) American higher education stands on the brink of chaos. Never have so many spent so long learning so little.

(2) The present crisis stems from the increasingly widespread acceptance among faculty and administration of the fatal educational principle that a student should not be required to do any academic work that displeases him. If a student prefers not to study science or history or literature, he is allowed to attain his degree without studying any science, history, or literature.

(3) If he prefers not to take examinations, he either makes special arrangements with his instructor or else chooses his courses from among the ever-growing number that involve no examinations. If he prefers that his work not be graded he arranges in most or all of his courses to receive an undifferentiated pass or fail. If he is concerned about obtaining high grades, he selects his teachers from among the many who have yielded to student pressure and now indiscriminately award A’s to virtually everyone. As the dean of Yale’s Morse College recently remarked of his students, “They get a B and they bawl. It takes a man or woman of real integrity to give a B.”

(4) Throughout the country the attempt is being made to provide students with what is advertised as a liberal education without requiring of them the necessary self-discipline and hard work. Students have been led to believe they can achieve without effort that all they need to do in order to obtain a good education is skip blithely down the merry road to learning. Unfortunately, that road is no more than a detour to the dead end of ignorance.

(5) We must realize that becoming an educated person is a difficult, demanding enterprise. Just as anyone who spoke of intense physical training as a continuous source of pleasure and delight would be thought a fool, for we all know how much pain and frustration such training involves, so anyone who speaks of intense mental exertion as a continuous source of joy and ecstasy ought to be thought equally foolish, for such effort also involves pain and frustration. It is painful to have one’s ignorance exposed and frustrating to be baffled by intellectual subtleties. Of course, there can be joy in learning as there can be joy in sport. But in both cases the joy is a result of overcoming genuine challenges and cannot be experienced without toil.

(6) It is not easy to read intelligently and think precisely. It is not easy to speak fluently and write clearly. It is not easy to study a subject carefully and know it thoroughly. But these abilities are the foundation of a sound education.

(7) If a student is to learn intellectual responsibility, he must be taught to recognize that not every piece of work is a good piece of work. In fact some work is just no good at all. A student may be friendly, cooperative, and sensitive to the needs of mankind, but he may nevertheless turn in a muddled economics paper or an incompetent laboratory report.

(8) And that he means well is no reason why he should not be criticized for an inadequate performance. Such criticism, when well-founded and constructive, is in no way demeaning for the willingness to accept it and learn from it is one mark of a mature individual. Yet criticism of any sort is rare nowadays. As student opinion is given greater and greater weight in the evaluation of faculty, professors are busy trying to ingratiate themselves with the students.

(9) Indeed, college education is gradually coming to resemble the Caucus-race in “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” in which everyone begins running whenever he likes ans stops running whenever he likes. There are no rules. Still everyone wins, and everyone must receive a prize.

(10) A democracy, however, cannot afford to transform its educational system into a Caucus-race, for the success of a democracy depends in great part upon the understanding and capability of its citizens. And in the complex world in which we live, to acquire sufficient understanding and capability requires a rigorous education. If we fail to provide that education we shall have only ourselves to blame as misguided policies in our universities contribute to the decay of our democracy.

Section 4

Discussion and Conversation