University of Virginia Brouhaha

Teresa Sullivan

Much has been written about the controversy at the University of Virginia. I really don't know all the details that led the Board of Visitors to fire President Teresa Sullivan, so I won't be too judgmental. However, I do think the BOV is the governing body of the University,  and it was well within their rights to take the actions they did. Having the faculty and students "run" the school is much like having the inmates run the asylum, and I think a dangerous precedent. Regardless of whether the BOV's action was wise, it is very timely to have a debate about "education" and its "costs."

Those faithful readers of this column know that I dearly love the University of Virginia, but it is not necessary to go to the University of Virginia ( or any other top institution of higher learning) to be well educated. In fact, it is not even necessary to "go to college" to be educated and/or  a "learned"  individual. Like all man made institutions since the history of time, the more money and power an organization has, the more corrupt it will be, so it is with the "education establishment" in America.

Ivy Tower

Corruption generally starts with good intentions: GI Bills, taxpayer funding, student loans, Pell Grants, etc. and then suddenly morphs into an elite, self entrenched bureaucracy totally removed from the original aims and goals of such organizations when they were modestly funded. So it is with education. It should not cost $100,000 ( the 4 year in state costs at Virginia) to be a well rounded, well read, critically thinking individual imbued with the powers to assess facts and reach a reasoned, rational decision. Isn't this what education is? And where is it written that this "so called education" is magically bequeathed on 'children' between the ages of 18 and 22?  The fact is "education" is a life long process that derives from intellectual curiosity and desire, it doesn't just magically happen. I know a number of Ivy Leaguers who are complete dolts, and I know guys who went to Podunk State who are fascinating, interesting and extremely engaging. Higher education has become a giant,  self-serving guilt trip imposed upon all of us by elitists who get paid to promote a lie.

James Madison

The big lie is that somehow we need all this expensive ornamentation: huge capital expenditures, huge administrative salaries, huge everything to reach this imaginary academic panacea that is supposed to solve all of our problems, but is really a huge "con-game." Despite my father's hard earned money, due to my own immaturity,  I didn't learn much at the University of Virginia. I was a history major, however, I did learn that the lessons of the past give us perspective on the present. I have an ancestor, a Presbyterian preacher, the Rev. James Waddell who taught James Madison his Greek and Latin. He did not attend an accredited college and did not earn a "degree." Needless to say, the Education Establishment  would not  allow him to teach kindergarten today.  There was no public education in Colonial Virginia, yet this period produced perhaps the greatest and most erudite thinkers in two millennium. All that is needed to learn are a few books and a passion for learning.

Technology has a way of eviscerating inefficiency. The light bulb did away with the candle, the car replaced the horse, and thankfully, the Internet will do away with the fantastic behemoth that is "higher education." There is very little being taught at the University of Virginia that can't be delivered by some entity, perhaps much better with more quality to millions of people for pennies. This is the revolution in education. History teaches us that this revolution will be fought with tremendous tenacity by those who are threatened by its success: tenured faculty, administrators, politicians, accrediting agencies and a host of others who live off the fat of the exiting system.

If this is what the debate was about that brought Teresa Sullivan's ouster, good. It is a vital and necessary discussion.