[lbo-talk] MH & DG on university

Chuck Grimes c123grimes at att.net
Mon Feb 27 11:00:52 PST 2012



> Jeffrey F: "traditional structure is a problem"
>
> [WS:] I suspect it is a problem only in the US. Which strongly
> suggests one of the following:
>
> 1. The problem is manufactured for a political purpose;
> 2. The is a problem with the US population's relation to education;
> 3. All of the above.
>
> Wojtek

Here's an example of why traditional structure is a problem, by counter example. The best of grad school days were composed of working in the grad student painting studios, in an old post WWII bungalow. The seminars were held there in the evening. About ten students and a prof would sit around in one student's space. The student would bring out his or her work and set the work up for discussion and critique. Then we would move the next on the list. Since we knew each other's work, and watched it in the making, we had a very good idea of what was going on and how it was going.

This only lasted about 3/4 of a year. The place was torn down to build butt ugly Evans. I didn't know it at the time, but it was training in the cycle of gentification. Find some rundown space move in, and the redevelopment agency gets wind of it via some savy connected developer, and the bulldozers take it from there... I had a great place just off the tracks below 4th Street. Berkeley got some HUD money, bought the place and paid me a couple grand as moving expenses. The building is still there just behind the 4th Street boutiques that were built just in front.

This also reminds me that the most important thing to learn, is how to learn on your own. Once you get that, you can teach yourself, with occasional critiques from whoever. This forms the basis of a conceptual university

CG



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