Summer Reading Books: The Ties That Bind Colleges

Fake education produces fake news, these colleges can't even wait till the students arrive before making sure they understand the limits of collegiate discourse. My freshman year, many years ago we read the THE STRANGER. "Yesterday i killed an Arab..." It would be impossible for any college to assign it now, it's a shame

Ayn Rand, ATLAS SHRUGGED, Leon Uris EXODUS, George Orwell, ANIMAL FARM, Machiavelli THE PRINCE, Plato THE REPUBLIC, Orterga Y Gasset REVOLT OF THE MASSES, Paul Bowles, THE SHELTERING SKY, Marquise de Sade JULIET, etc etc etc..fake education leads to fake news in an endless circle, so our country is nickled and dimed to death. Many of these are not particularly great books but they might open closed minds. Both students and profs.

Colorado School of Mines had the freshman class read Margaret Atwood's "Oryx and Crake" a couple of years ago. This was just as the school was deciding to teach Biology for the first time. My chemistry major reader kid enjoyed the science run amok theme and marveled at how his mostly non reader classmates were enthralled.

Did someone say, "Classics"?

Oh that the "classics" would come back. I know. . .I know. . .they never really went away. But sometimes it seems that way.

I've been trying (with difficulty) to revivify my ancient Greek skills. Rereading (for the first time in fifty years) Socrates' "Apology." I say "Socrates"--everyone knows it was put together by Plato years afterwards. Years during which he could look back at an old friend and mentor. On trial for his life. Defending himself and his profession of philosophy.

Philosophy in the old sense of the word. "Love of wisdom." Romans like Tacitus simply rendered the word sapientia--"wisdom." The wisdom of a man that declared "The unexamined life it not worth living." A man that declared the only thing he knew was that he knew nothing.

Oh you colleges! you liberal arts students! These things NEVER go out of date. Remember Ezra Pound's famous dictum, "Great literature is news that STAYS news."

And the languages themselves--Greek and Latin. Those vehicles for conveying infinite shades of thought--meaning--emotion. Worth studying on their own account. Classical Greek? An education in itself. An LA fitness program for the mind. Infinitely worthwhile!

But I"m beginning to run on. And in all fairness. . . .

. . .there's SO MUCH out there. In any language.

Even in English. Especially in English.

So read on, guys! Read on! Best to you!

Reading a book about a diversity issue and discussing it is not the way to understand diversity. That tactic remindsme of some of the diversity initiatives when I attended Smith College which consisted of eating foods and having a student from, say, a different culture, tell the group some story about her life. Yet in many schools where the students are Of A Certain Status and Income, those conversations are at their core not very diverse. Further what do books like "Hillbilly Elegy" say to the student who comes to an upper tier college or university to get away from their own version of that book? Reading a classic,like Austen's "Pride and Prejudice" and discuss it in a free flowing, "I can identify with" form of conversation with no focus on canonical, scholarly interpretations can go a long way to fostering bridges among races, classes, and genders more than focused discussions of culturally and socially relative books. So many approved readings will fade in the years ahead but Austen, Aristotle, Fitzgerald and Plato will continue to resonate and be relevant.

What our country needs is a national summer reading list.

Classics signify the dreaded perpetually out of academic favor "dead white male".

These choices seem very confined to the here and now - namely to the 21st century and issues pertinent to the USA. College should be the beginning of broadening your vision and perspectives. A selection of good writing from East and West Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and Australasia, across the ages, with universal themes, is surely the best start to a time at college.

Brandeis University has had a freshman book program for years and invites the author to meet with freshmen at orientation. In their first days on campus, every student has something in common to discuss, whether they be studying Physics or French. I graduated long ago before this program, but always call campus to see what the new selection is. It's given me a chance to read works, and consider ideas, I would not otherwise have come across. My favorite was Anne Fadiman's The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down.

I have such a hard time believing Hillbilly Elegy is such a great book. It describes the people of Appalachia as dysfunctional. He describes his rise from a dysfunctional home to go on the law school. This is the story of so many of us in America I can't see why he thinks he did anything more important than anyone else. The people of Appalachia I know are the salt of the Earth. Just look at students at Berea College, for example of Appalachia.

I wish Smith College had had this program when I was there in the 50s. As it is, the college posts each year's book on its website, giving me the opportunity to read it and consider how each book might engender discussion. I have read about half of them (the list of previous books goes back 18 years) and bought the 2017 book at my recent reunion. I'm trying to catch up with those I haven't yet read.

Seems to me that whether the book reflects liberal or conservative viewpoints is not the point. What matters is how free-ranging the discussion is, and whether or not all viewpoints are both aired and respected. And whether or not the books are classics or recently published, the thoughts of writers from decades - or centuries - can be brought into the discussion.

Perhaps Professor Dent could host a national book club for us, featuring the reading selections from "Perspectives on Conflict," and we could all discuss it, say as some kind of television show akin to The Voice or whatever people are watching these days. Get thoughtful public figures out there discussing these readings along with engaged citizens. Model on TV what civil public discourse looks like (NOT like pundits on MSNBC or Fox, not like Tweetstorms). Show that the "intellectual elite" are in fact regular people -- or could be "regular people." Expose as a myth what the far right is pushing -- that the "academic elite," the press, writers are "anti-American."

A few years ago UW-Madison chose The immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, by Rebecca Skloot, and it proved to offer a rich discussion of medical ethics, the Nuremberg Trials, medical research concerning human gene ownership, the movement of African Americans from the south to industrial cities in the north, and yes the structural and personal mis- treatment of African Americans. Yes this was about diversity, but that seems to narrow a concept for this rich book, and I suspect for a few others that are labeled as such.

How sad that another interesting conversation has been swamped, this time by an altered wrestling video. Give the people what they "want," right? Regarding this article, perhaps students could be allowed to vote on a theme or themes that interest them, and then school faculty/administrators could determine a book or books within that theme? Maybe that might improve readership while still opening minds further and reducing cries of bias.

www.thewaryouknow.com

So, abandoning the reading and reflecting on the classics is over and Victimology 101 is all they need to know to become active, civic-minded and intelligent members of the polity? Diversity is a cruel joke on the students.

Books celebrating diversity are de facto left-wing slanted: the right wing does not recognize the need for diversity.

Ehrenreich's "Nickel and Dimed" is not out of favor but widely anthologized; many students encounter excerpts in popular composition anthologies. It might be worth considering how popular books move from "common read" lists into college writing anthologies.

The quote from a representative of National Association of Scholars, (whatever that is?) rejected texts and current research he hadn't read? I see that as a common theme among those who weigh in on changes to the canon. They are scared of change and new voices not previously heard from are terrifying.

Reading a Summer Book(s) w/o having a chance to discuss it, is rather pointless b/c an Undergraduate's courses may not cover such. The books many be too General, or too distance (in time) for even Universities/College "Common" Core Requirements. Not so for Law Schools. On the 1980's we had to read "The Buffalo Creek Disaster". Helpful for a course on Civil Procedure. Nowadays they may read a"A Civil Action". OR watch the Movie (w/ same Title) starring John Travolta.

I saw a segment which CSPAN aired last year on Beach Books. Someone from the National Association of Scholars said Just Mercy is below college level. Regardless, this book is informative.

The books chosen for these programs always seem to be contemporary, to be "relevant" in a political sense, and to focus on anything but the project on which the students are about to embark. Why not books about the purpose of college itself? I would start with Charles Homer Haskins's _The Rise of Universities_ and Cardinal Newman's _The Idea of a University_. Then I would include a book on someone who educated himself to a high level without attending a university—say, _A Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass_. And then a book on education today. Summer is long enough for four short books, if they make you think about what you will be doing for the next four years.

Framingham (Mass.) State University's incoming first-year students will read "A Hope in the Unseen" by Ron Suskind, and the students have been assigned a 1-2 page reflection paper due to their First-Year Foundations instructor the first week on campus. While certainly the book addresses the inequities present among students in poor public schools versus students in the very best schools, FSU chose it for its main character's determination to persevere in various educational and socioeconomic settings, to negotiate the challenges, and to build on his strengths developed along the way.

What a shame to stop a reading program because of criticism of the titles. Not all are left wing. Certainly J.D. Vance's is not. It is the duty of Universities to expose students to as many sides of issues as possible. What a shame not to meet to discuss them after school starts.
I remember being assigned to read Plato's "The Meno" for my freshman year in college. It was never discussed once I arrived on campus. It was most unfortunate that we never had such a discussion. The reading of the "Meno" certainly raised a lot of questions in my mind.
These students are missing a chance to see the world from many angles. If the books are too expensive, the students could pay for them. Generally, students do pay for their own books. What a flimsy excuse for failing the students.

What is the basis for the statement: " . . . many colleges are criticized for incubating left-wing ideologues . . ."? What exactly are the criticisms? Levied against which colleges? Made by whom? Who are the "left-wing ideologues"? How would one identify them? Essentially, I wonder why this article was set up to be an "left versus right" dialectic.

common books with a definite slant. All from those who profess to be about diversity.