13-06-2013, 06:39 AM
Magda wrote:
Magda.
Yes, Milton Friedman gave lectures to us in the College. It was at a time of the Cold War and McCarthy Period, so there was fear on campus for our professors. Dr. Anton J.Carrlson, Professor of Physiology, and the Dean of the Social Sciences Division, Dean Birgess, were both called before the US House of Representatives Committee on Un-American Activities. These two elderly highly respected gentlemen protested outside of the meetings and called for open hearings so that the Ameican people could see what this Committee was doing to the Freedom of Speech and Thought. Carlson was strong advocate of Free Speech and he had volunteered to be the Faculty Sponsor of the Student Marxist Club and the Student Fascist Club because no other faculty member was willing to take that responsibility. I don't recall why Dean Burgress was called, maybe for the progressive views of some of his faculty.
Colonel McCormick's newspaper, the Chicago Tribune, was always writing nasty editorials and articles about the University, attacking it as a pro-comminist "little red schoolhouse." He was the "Rupert Mudoch" of that day. After Robert Hutchins left the next President of the University was incapable of maintaining the high educational standards held by Hutchins.
The educational levels in this country have really gone way down. And the worst part is that important economic concepts and philosophical ideas are suppressed and lacking in the curriculums ofs so may sdcools. Even education has become "politicized", as you point out..
One thng I can say about the Hutchins program is that the Socratic method which was used tauight people how to think, and that seems to be missing at Harvard, Yale, and other elite schools. It was never used there, actually, and it is a very powerful teaching method because it demands participation of the students in the learniong process. It motivates students to want learn more.
Thank you for your comments.
Adele
Quote: It is reassuring to hear that something of real value is (or was?) taught at Chicago University which is more associated in my mind with the Milton Friedman's shcok therapy Chicago School of Economics or voodoo economics as I think of it. It seems quite pathetic that the state of education in the US is so poor that one cannot learn Marx as a matter of course because it is a fundamental classic of Western philosophy and this is especially so in economics. How could any one study economics, especially at any higher level, and not study Marx's Capital? What poverty of mind is that? I also find Marx excellent on the social sciences and history in general for understanding all sorts of things that have happened and ways to see the future. Dialectics (yes, Hegel too but Marx takes it to another level with Dialectical Materialism) Labor Theory of Value, Historical Materialism, Surplus Value, class analysis and more. Understanding any of these concepts immeasurably enhances ones understanding of the world and how it works. Which possibbly explains some of why it is absent from many US educational institutions.
Magda.
Yes, Milton Friedman gave lectures to us in the College. It was at a time of the Cold War and McCarthy Period, so there was fear on campus for our professors. Dr. Anton J.Carrlson, Professor of Physiology, and the Dean of the Social Sciences Division, Dean Birgess, were both called before the US House of Representatives Committee on Un-American Activities. These two elderly highly respected gentlemen protested outside of the meetings and called for open hearings so that the Ameican people could see what this Committee was doing to the Freedom of Speech and Thought. Carlson was strong advocate of Free Speech and he had volunteered to be the Faculty Sponsor of the Student Marxist Club and the Student Fascist Club because no other faculty member was willing to take that responsibility. I don't recall why Dean Burgress was called, maybe for the progressive views of some of his faculty.
Colonel McCormick's newspaper, the Chicago Tribune, was always writing nasty editorials and articles about the University, attacking it as a pro-comminist "little red schoolhouse." He was the "Rupert Mudoch" of that day. After Robert Hutchins left the next President of the University was incapable of maintaining the high educational standards held by Hutchins.
The educational levels in this country have really gone way down. And the worst part is that important economic concepts and philosophical ideas are suppressed and lacking in the curriculums ofs so may sdcools. Even education has become "politicized", as you point out..
One thng I can say about the Hutchins program is that the Socratic method which was used tauight people how to think, and that seems to be missing at Harvard, Yale, and other elite schools. It was never used there, actually, and it is a very powerful teaching method because it demands participation of the students in the learniong process. It motivates students to want learn more.
Thank you for your comments.
Adele