Has anyone seen Monck’s mind?
April 23rd, 2008If anyone has seen the mind of Professor Adrian Monck, head of City University’s journaliism department, could they return it as soon as possible, in a jifffy bag packed with lots of bubble wrap. His brain may not be very big but it is the only one he has got. And every minute he is without it, he is a possible danger to himself, and and a certain threat to alll journalism students, and would-be journalism students, at City University.The news broke in the newsroom of The Guardian in London, when many witnessed the breakdown he suffered in a debate with the renowned philosopher, A.C. Grayling.But readers do not have to wait to see the evidence.The crafty Guardian hacks have buried it in the education section of their web site, under the misleading headline, of ‘Is the Renaissance scholar dead?’ Monck’s speech was not about scholarship, Renaissance or later. The thinking was mindless Monck polemnic laced with one reference to the gospel of Netscape founder, Marc Andreessen.
“Graduating with a technical degree is like heading out into the real world armed with an assault rifle instead of a dull knife. Don’t miss that opportunity because of some fuzzy romanticised view of liberal arts broadening your horizons.”
Journalists, of ccourse, have to be kept away from knives and assault rifles, while they learn to rely on the pen when they want to put the boot in.
Monck says he does not want to shut down English departments and forensic science departments en masse. He merely wants this:
By all means let people study history, the classics, novels, the media. But let them do it in their spare time – not as a state-sponsored, loan-financed languor.
For a take on what Monck, who himself studied history at Oxbridge, might have said before he lost his mind, follow this link, to a blog from the Vice-Chancellor’s office at Macquairie University in Australia, That blog does say something about what the Renaissance was about and its relevance to today’s world and apparently it was written by Vice-Chancellor himself, a bloke called Steven Schwartz. Schwartz is a former vice-chancellor of Brunel University, whose great strength is in teaching engineering. But imaginatively. Schwartz argues that;
foresight, constructive dissent and creativity are the real skills that are in short supply.
Read it and follow his links..But don’t forget to watch your step. Don’t whatever you do tread on Monck’s mind.
It may be lying on a street near you.
March 2nd, 2009 at 3:36 pm
Nice one!
This would simply be delightful satire, of course, were Government policy regarding Lifelong Learning not in the hands of Moncks — named, in this instance, Rammell and Denham. Should we except Lammy? He’s rumoured recently to have gained a more sophisticated outlook on education than his distinguished underlings, but it all sounds like a classic case of too little too late. The calamitous ELQ policy won’t be revoked, however much it”ll have helped, come the Election, to weave new Labour’s winding-sheet.