Sphinxes in the Classroom

W HILE pondering an article in the American Association of University Professors Bulletin' on the reluctance of students to speak up in class, to participate in discussions, and to express opinions, the writer read with envy and amusement a brief statement in the same issue about the value of discussion in higher education: Teaching thrives on free discussion, and on this principle the colleges are turning out graduates who, among other things, can see right through politicians.2 Well, it is to be hoped that they can, and New York University is to be congratulated if it succeeds in an area where Mr. Cronin and others find the going so very rough. Evidently, the students in some classes do talk, do speak up, dare to have an opinion of their own. 0 blessed school where such marvels take place! We know of many another school where lip service is paid to free and loud discussion both by students and teachers (including administration and alumni), but where, in spite of their earnest desire and sincere effort, it simply does not come about. Discarding for the moment the possibilities Mr. Cronin mentions at the beginning of his article, namely, apathy on the part of the students, . . . failure of imagination and intellectual enterprise, or . . consuming preoccupation with the primitive concerns of young people,''3 we may be inclined to place the blame for this failure on the instructor. He simply may not be the type to inspire any conversation or to encourage any ever so polite disagreement. Yet it would be naive to believe that Mr. Johnson's simple formula, Hurt their feelings! and thus jolt them into hot discussion, will always work. It does not. 'Cronin, Morton, Students are Supposed to be Dumb, XLI (Summer, 1955), pp. 359-65. 'Johnson, Jotham, The Professors and the Politicians, p. 269. 3Cronin, op. cit., p. 359

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