海角大神

In the Basement of the Ivory Tower

A disillusioned professor questions the contemporary American push to get all kids into college.

In June 2008, The Atlantic ran an article titled 鈥淚n the Basement of the Ivory Tower,鈥� in which a pseudonymous 鈥�Professor X鈥� offered harsh criticism gleaned from his experience teaching English composition and literature as an adjunct instructor on the lower rungs of America鈥檚 institutes of so-called higher learning. He protested that despite our best egalitarian impulses, college isn鈥檛 for everyone and in fact is obscenely costly and wasteful.

The provocative essay has now been expanded for the wider play (and pay) into In the Basement of the Ivory Tower, a book of the same title. Wanting to preserve his jobs, Professor X chose to remain anonymous and not single out the small private college and two-year community college where he鈥檚 been teaching for 10 years, which he believes are representative of the wider problem.

As we know from books as diverse as 鈥淧rimary Colors鈥� and 鈥淪tory of O,鈥� anonymous authorship paradoxically can both heighten and undercut a book鈥檚 impact. It can free a writer to be bolder and set off an identity guessing game; but it can also lead to less care or weight 鈥� as in anonymous Internet postings.

So who is Professor X? Good question. He鈥檚 a self-deprecating middle-aged man, possibly parochial-school educated (he mentions a Sister Mary Finbar, who taught him in first grade that 鈥渁 sentence is a group of words expressing a complete thought,鈥� something his students don鈥檛 seem to understand upon arrival at college).

Professor X鈥檚 dream, after earning an MFA in Creative Writing, was to write fiction, but practicality and three children led to a job in government. Real estate lust and easy mortgages led him to buy a house beyond his means in a charming exurban village. This in turn led to marital stress, and to his nocturnal teaching gigs 鈥� which in turn led to both serious disillusion with the educational system in which he had become a cog, and enormous comfort in 鈥渢he light of literature.鈥�

Other things we learn about Professor X: the man can write, and he鈥檚 passionate about literature. This does not mean, however, that what makes for a powerful essay is sustainable for an entire book. 鈥淚n the Basement of the Ivory Tower,鈥� while still providing plenty of grist for lively discussion, is regrettably disorganized in its structure and repetitive in its execution 鈥� rather like a term paper padded to fulfill minimum length requirements.

Most of the meat can be found up front, in the sharp preface. Professor X rues President Obama鈥檚 push for universal college enrollment because so many students are 鈥渦nprepared for the rigorous demands of higher education ... and a great many will not graduate.鈥� The papers he receives are so unintelligible he wonders whether his students 鈥渉ad not had their fingers placed on the home keys while they typed.鈥�

Yet students, 鈥減oignantly desperate for success,鈥� continue to hock their futures with punitive loans because of the 鈥渨age premium for a college education,鈥� and, more pointedly, 鈥渃redential inflation,鈥� that requires at least some college for an increasing number of fields (including nursing and state troopers).

Professor X is dismayed by the irreconcilable conflict 鈥渂etween open admissions and basic standards,鈥� which turns low-rung community colleges into 鈥渧ocational schools on steroids,鈥� filled with students sorely in need of remedial education. As a teacher of English 101 and 102, two courses required for graduation, he has become a reluctant gatekeeper, determined to teach and grade to college standards rather than dumb down the material or succumb to compassionate grade inflation 鈥� decisions that have led him to fail as many as 9 out of 15 students in a single class.

While Professor X鈥檚 memoir/diatribe touches on what he teaches and how, the agony of grading is a recurring obsession. In fact, in the avalanche of responses to his Atlantic essay, some of which he quotes, he was roundly criticized for focusing more on evaluating than on teaching.

While Professor X questions the value of a liberal arts education and familiarity with James Joyce鈥檚 Molly Bloom for someone pursuing a career in, say, medical technology, he fails to question his own standards, which may be calibrated too high: In his grading scale, Anna Quindlen would earn just a B-minus!

One can鈥檛 help wondering whether a shift toward thinking about community college as further education rather than higher education might ease the rub. If students enter at a ninth-grade level, wouldn鈥檛 improvement of even a grade or two over a 15-week course have some value?

In criticizing our 鈥渂lind faith in the power of education,鈥� Professor X asserts that Americans 鈥渢hink of educators as something close to saints, and school as impervious to bottom-line concerns.鈥� Tell that to teachers struggling to hang on amid draculean budget cuts.

Heller McAlpin, a freelance critic in New York, is a frequent Monitor contributor.

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