Maggie's post about students not appreciating having their preconceptions challenged struck a familiar chord. It brings up an issue I think all progressive academics are concerned with, namely can and do professors substantially transform students' attitudes about society, or do they largely provide a framework that makes sense to students' established world view? Also, is there any sense that exposure to progressive ideas leads to attitude changes that are sustained over long periods, with or without what I could call ideological booster shots? Jeff ---------- From: MScoleman To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: David Harvey's anomie Date: Thursday, April 30, 1998 10:06PM In a message dated 98-04-29 21:32:47 EDT, you write: << Hmm, really? My own recent tours of campuses, and conversations with academics, combine to present a less pretty picture of the U.S. college population. They seem, for the most part, poorly educated and don't seem to give a fuck about much of anything. Am I just being too gloomy once again? Doug >> I recently had my classes read pieces of Edin and Lein's "Making Ends Meet" which is a comparison of the lives of welfare women and low wage women, and how they feed their kids with not enough money. The reactions of all my students, save one, before they read the material was that welfare women are all lazy and promiscuous. AFter my lecture and reading the material, most of them were not particularly happy with having their perceptions blurred -- but that's about as progressive as most of them are (at least in my classes). maggie coleman [EMAIL PROTECTED]
