Welcoming First-Year Students with a Wake-Up Call
Is it really possible that pretty much every single college and university around the country will, this fall, be welcoming its best-ever, most qualified, most curious, most diverse set of first-year students? Seems unlikely. In an interview with Evan Goldstein and Len Gutkin in the Chronicle of Higher Education, Andrew Delbanco offers an alternative. The interview … Continue reading Welcoming…
As college and universities nationwide prepare to welcome their most exceptional, accomplished, curious, and diverse first-year students this fall, the message may come as a surprise to some. In an interview with Evan Goldstein and Len Gutkin in the Chronicle of Higher Education, Andrew Delbanco, Professor of American studies at Columbia University and recipient of the National Humanities Medal in 2012, shares his thoughts on the matter.
Titled "Is Academic ‘Smugness’ on the Rise? Andrew Delbanco on humility, complacency, and the value of self-criticism," the piece explores the role of humility and self-criticism in academic work. Delbanco, who has dedicated over 50 years to the academy, suggests that there has historically been a greater emphasis on humility in the past.
He argues that some of the negative reactions to elite institutions stem from a sense of superiority and the belief that they possess all the answers. In the early days of prominent Northeastern institutions, which often stemmed from Protestant traditions, incoming students were told they were "worthless sinners" who had earned their place through divine grace.
Today, however, the message to first-year students is more affirmative and self-congratulatory. Delbanco suggests that this tone should be tempered to better reflect the reality of academic humility and the value of self-criticism.
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