Monday, May 4, 1987
Daily Nebraskan
o o j o
Page 5
Tin Tm n wtph im
2
ROGERS from Page 4
of the profound similarity of student
journalists' world views. It's as if the
vast majority of journalism students
(and I generalize to practitioners) have
been cut from the same cloth. I fear
that the journalistic environs are so
sympathetic to this given perspective
that the integrity of the profession is at
stake. (A situation in which I do not
rejoice.)
While legally free Journalists express
a distinctive Zeitgeist, the bucking of
which is punatively unfashionable.
Please believe me, I do not hold up
journalism as a whipping boy for every
grievance. My concern is that, of all
professions, journalism is the one in
which education through an insular,
"professional" school is completely
unappropriate. I fear the technique has
been so exalted in such schools that it
constitutes a detriment to the journal
istic calling. (Even with required "out
side" areas and minors; it's a question
of the "core.")
Of all the professions, the paradig
matic journalist should be steeped in
that form of education termed liberal
education: The habits of thought fos
tered by the liberal arts are precisely
those that allow individuals to be intel
lectually critical and to oppose the
Will-O-the-Wisp trends of censorious
fashion.
The current method of journalistic
education, emphasizing as it does
technique over critique, is sowing the
seeds of a. skepticism regarding the
press so popular as to be incompatible
with democratic living. A popular loss
of trust in the integrity of the press
leaves open a greatly heightened pos
sibility of mass movements antitheti
cal to republican society. The trend is
already apparent.
History is not determined by the
best or the worst, but by the average.
Superior journalists unquestionably
exist, but the awesome responsibility
of the press cannot be discharged by
these alone. I fear that the average
journalist is not being educated with
the wherewithal to discharge this
responsibility competently.
I have emphasized journalism up to
this point only because of the utter and
obvious deadliness of a fashion-dictated
Zeitgeist in this profession. For other
students the same lesson applies, but
the consequences of neglect will not be
seen as quickly nor as obviously as in
journalism.
During my first year of law school, I
recall, my constitutional law professor
commented that the quality of a school
is determined as much, if not more, by
the quality and commitment of the
students.
Of course there was a strong murmur
of disapproval among my colleagues at
this subtle insult. But nothing was said
openly, I dare say, because the state
ment was true and we realized that we
only, weakly (at best) discharged our
duties toward the ideal of paideia.
Again it is a question of the average.
Over my nine years here I've talked to
dozens of professors who complain
about students at Nebraska. They always
grant that there are "a few" students
with a zeal for learning, but complain
that mostare intellectually moribund.
It was this, the duty of the student,
that was utterly neglected in the recent
"Report of the Chancellor's Commis
sion on General Liberal Education."
Sadly, students are satisfied with
career training. But for all the "utility"
of career training, that approach is
deadly for education and the highest
expression of true education, the uni
versity. Departments like construction
management (and so many like it) do
not have a rightful place in anything
termed a university. Period.
Of course students can develop a
liberal program, if they're blessed
enough to fall into orte. But there is no
coherent vision of the educated man,
and one cannot be tailored to fit the
departmental status quo. As a result,
students are not aware of the liberal
"alternative" because carecrism and
its offspring of career-oriented de
partments place blinders on the eyes.
Students pursuing liberal education at
UNL do so only by accident.
Universities were founded on a vision
of what the educated man should be.
This vision is eclipsed by the willing
ness of the school to cater to careerism.
("And what do you want to be when you
grow up? A business man, a lawyer, a
doctor, an engineer. . .?") And to the
extent that liberal education is in
eclipse, this school does not deserve to
be call a university.
I have a great deal of affection for
this school and a great deal of respect
for so many who teach in it, adminis
trate in it and learn in it. But a scent of
death is in the air: not the death of a
physical area called the University of
Nebraska, but a death of a decades-old
anemia, one that will cause a lingering
and slow demise in the future. So slow
it may not even be noticed.
The womb that gave birth to so much
of what I call "me" persistently moves
toward sterility. And I mourn.
Rogers is an economics graduate stu
dent, law student and Daily Nebraskan
editorial page editor.
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LETTERS from Page 4
incoherent, unintelligible article (if I
can call it an article).
Although Rogers may at times be
snobbish, I appreciate his sophistica
tion and well-thought-out views. Lieu
rance, on the other hand, needs to
retake those journalism , classes he
flunked (that is if he has taken any at
all). In the mean time, save the trees
keep Lieurance off the pages.
David Patterson
senior
mechanical engineering
"Taste the Tradition
5
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