The Death of Academic Rigor

By David Solway January 1, 2018

The notion of academic rigor has fallen on evil times. In a typical instance of continuing epistemic degradation, Donna Riley, of Purdue University's School of Engineering Education, insists that rigor must be eliminated since rigor is a "dirty deed" fraught with "exclusionary implications for marginalized groups and marginalized ways of knowing." It matters little, apparently, if our bridges collapse so long as "men of color and women, students with disabilities, LGBTQ+ people, first-generation and low-income students" are welcomed into the new holistic community defined by "other ways of knowing" – whatever these may be.

 Similarly, Rochelle Gutierrez, of the University of Illinois, fears that algebra, geometry, and math perpetuate white male privilege and discriminate against minorities. Indeed, minority under-performance is often disguised as a form of "mismatching" – that is, the fault lies with the institution for being beyond the student's intellectual means. Clearly, the dire situation we are in can only deteriorate as the concept of excellence bites the dust and students are deliberately coaxed into pre-planned intellectual darkness.........  Wherever we may decide to lay the blame for the disaster of abysmal academic achievement – helicopter parents, substandard public school teachers, the self-esteem movement, a culture of entitlement – the dilemma is compounded by the drumming indoctrination of the political left upon the untutored minds of an increasingly lost generation.  As Jack Kerwick correctly states, "[most of] today's academics, far from being deep, curious thinkers, are in reality joint-members of a thought-collective.".........To Read More....