RE: however, this is a tragic situation

I'm not obligated to occupy any kind of "middle ground" -- that's all
part of your imagination. I occupy the ground I stand on, Daniel. I
perceive from that location. That's it.

In a past post (months back) you lamented the neglected middle way. But I
am glad that you have since revised that with this "That's it".
Daniel

My criticism of the links you posted were specific to the links and
their claims. I quoted directly from the pages, usually, to support my
criticisms. In case you don't remember, my criticisms were that by and
large Universities in CA, NY, and the Ivys were being used to represent
all colleges everywhere in the US. I also complained that anecdotal
evidence from a few institutions (and to add a new one, we never get
both sides of the story -- we hear a student complain about professor
bias, for example, we we're not allowed to hear the professor say the
student's work was late or poorly written or not properly
documented...etc.) was used to illustrate what was supposedly a national
problem.
Jim

Is it possibility that there is a bias since you have admitted to standing
the ground you occupy, or are these anecdotes just more rhetoric? And you
critique is just your grounded bias? There is a question on the floor, I
expect you the critic to ask for a fair critique of both sides. You
rationalize based on the limited data submitted, fine but do you want a good
critique or the truth? Then get off your academic butt and find out. It's
your field that is being accused after all. So what is the conclusion? You
still don't know if this is occurring, you have no problem seeing it as an
issue in other professions but you dismiss it so easily when it comes to
yours. You need better ground Jim.
Daniel

I did say the problems in the links you supplied seemed common to many
similar articles I've read elsewhere, but this doesn't mean I think
anything is above criticism. I just want to see good, valid criticism.
As criticism of individual programs and schools, those articles were
probably good enough -- I'd like to hear both sides of many of those
stories, though. As criticism of the humanities as a whole, they were,
for the most part, very weak.
Jim

Good, I encourage your fellow humanitist to turn the glaring on to itself
concerning this matter.
Daniel

If you remember, one study did seem particularly interesting to me. My
criticism was that it -may have- excluded business schools and the
sciences in its collection of data, but I was curious enough to want to
see the data.
Jim

Glad to hear it. I am curious also.
Daniel

Now I hope you can see from this that there's a difference between
criticizing specific, individual articles and making blanket criticism
of an industry with thousands of members across the entire United
States. Saying that any one thing is true of most humanities
departments in the US is bound to have some problems -- just as saying
any one thing is true of all architectural firms or hospitals or
engineering firms is bound to have a problem. Things tend to be run
differently in different places.
Jim

There are such things as institutional problems and the best way to deal
with them is self policing, the problem may be individual, small or wide
scale but until you look there is no defense.
Daniel

I didn't say you never quoted me at all, just that when I ask you to
support some opinion of my ideas from quotations, you never, ever do.
Just above, for example, you specifically say I claim " middle ground
and feigned neutrality." Now you're making a claim about me -- about
things I've said. I want you to back it up with quotations.

I say I never claimed neutrality. I did say in an earlier post that my
criticisms of the articles had to do with how the articles were written
and with the data upon which most of the assertions were based. This
is just another way of saying what I just said above: I occupy the
ground I stand on, Daniel. I perceive from that location. That's it.
Jim

You appealed to the neglected middle way in the past. I'll scan the bfish
archive and remind you. But I am glad you are on the ground. I must paste
this in my Jim quote collection.
Daniel
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Received on Tue Sep 30 14:29:32 2003