academic elitism ?

[Jurriaan Bendien <j.bendien@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Mine,

Mine, I overlooked your response... I didn't say I "like" Brenner, I never
met him as I said. He was going to come to Amsterdam at one time but called
it off. I don't agree with some aspects of his analyses, but he has the
great merit to doing real research and stimulating important debate about
the nature of our epoch, which is more than I can say for a lot of
pseudo-Marxist cybernauts who think they are standing on the shoulders of
Karl Marx directing the course of world history.

If I had problems with Brenner's lecturing style, I would take it up with
him, rather than gossip about it in cyberspace.  I don't find student
evaluations silly - I did a Master's in Education at one time and was a
university tutor for about six years. I devoted a great deal of time to
painstakingly marking student assignments. But just because a student does
a frolic doesn't mean I am necessarily going to pay attention to it.

I am not an academic elitist, nor can I be, because I have not had anything
to do with universities in over ten years beyond visiting libraries. I have
been employed instead during that time mainly as research statistician and
documentalist/archivist, doing the nitty-gritty work that academic elitists
precisely consider "beneath" their "creative importance". So you are
talking to the wrong person.

What I find silly and puberal is studenty attempts at iconoclasm which
consist in personal attacks based on skimpy evidence made in the wrong context.

I cannot "imagine a scenario where Brenner was being racist to one of his
students and student mentioned this in the evaluation", but if this was the
case it would not be OK , obviously. You are just talking hypothetically
here though, just insinuating something. In my view that shows poor character.

If you don't think Brenner or Anderson write good stuff, then the challenge
is for you to get them to write better stuff, and you don't accomplish that
by slimy accusations in cyberspace, but by engaging in a substantive
dialogue with the people involved, and by demonstrating a better
alternative yourself.

Cheers

Jurriaan





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