Tom Bissonette made some astute observations in his H.O.O.P Dreams note. I
would like to comment on some of these and ask you all how you are dealing
with these issues.

>So the issue is not how to devalue athletics, it is how to increase the
>value of education. >We can only do that by recognizing - like it out not
>- that our roles as teachers are >changing. We are no longer the primary
>repositories of information. Many of our
>students already suffer from information overload. ..

and: >Another component of effective education today lies in its
entertainment value. <

The value of education, it seems to me, has been increasingly tied to
whatever economic benefit may be yielded (or wielded?) by  having a college
diploma, or better yet a graduate degree.  While it is true that more
education often leads to better job options and higher "earning power," I
am bothered by what I perceive among the general public to be an almost
exclusively pragmatic and economic view of "education," such that higher
education is popularly understood as "job-training."

On one hand, I  believe the obvious: that students should gain useful,
up-to-date skills in their major fields of study.  Having a good track
record of placing qualified graduates in good jobs *should* do a lot for
the reputation and recruiting power of any school.

On the other hand, some of the most important classes in my undergraduate
study at Appalachian State were interdisciplinary humanities courses. These
classes changed my life!! for the better, helped me to begin to think for
myself, to be more curious about literature, art, ideas, political
issues... They were taught by well-read, passionate, and engaged
professors.  In fact, when I think about my undergraduate years, these
classese were the highlights, with a few classes in and out of my major
area weighing in just beneath them.

I see the value of education as being, in part, the broadening of the mind
and deepening the range of human experience and thought, the cultivation of
a more than superficial curiosity, along with the best, most applicable
skills-training we can reasonably offer. And certainly I agree that we need
to be  "...awakening their passion and enabling them to place knowledge in
some kind of meaningful context" as Prof. Bissonette stated.

I work hard at this latter issue, especially because many of the students I
deal with enter our program with an information DEFICIT, not an overload,
and to get them to begin to see the value in absorbing and applying the
information, with enthusiasm, is a continual uphill march, pushing and
pulling all the while.

It also seems to me that education, among other cultural institutions such
as politics and religion, have been al least impacted if not shaped to a
great degree by the entertainment industry.  It sometimes seems that we
have either co-opted, or have been co-opted BY, the way that the
entertainment industry doles out words and images and sounds and
experiences. Infotainment videos, cartoons with "educational content",
video-game-style tutorial programs for home- and school computers, the
occasionally gratuitous use of computer technology for splashy
presentations, the substitution of inferior electronic imitations of
musical instruments for the real thing, even the ubiquitous use of the
designation of "Artist" for entertainers who are far from artistic.  We
could go on and on--News programs that feature graphically sophisticated
titles and HOllywood-inspired sound-tracks as they deliver news of
horrendous national tragedies and somber military events around the world.
Often it is more like "titillation" than "information."

I think that so many people have become so accustomed to (or addicted to)
what the entertainment industry offers, that they have come to *expect*
teachers and sports teams and student performing groups to Entertain them.
A problem with this is that they may be unaccustomed to and unprepared for
the *expectations* we Edutainers place upon them. With entertainment,
either they can remain passive, or if they interact, as with a game, they
have a considerable measure of control and can shape it to their
Preferences. I do not wish to be seen as an extension of a computer game;
and while I am very willing to offer individual help to students, I am not
willing to accomodate the Preferences of each individual student as to
"learning style." If I did, there may be no time left for anything else.

Please understand, I appreciate teachers who are entertaining at least
occasionally, and I enjoy the entertainment value of the arts and
athletics, although I do not see the arts or athletics as *primarily*
Entertainment. Obviously, students will respond more positively to a
teacher who presents the material with humor, good cheer, and energy. I
work at this also, and see the reponse in class. Whether it translates into
better retention on the student's part, I cannot say. But I do not think
that education and educators and artists and athletic programs (and
government officials and religious leaders) should be primarily and
directly shaped or influenced deeply by the entertainment industry.  It
seems to me that Ideas, (to choose a broad umbrella for what we do here, ),
that Ideas should be the primary shaper of popular culture, not the other
way around. That is probably naive.

How are you all dealing with these issues?






Dr. Jonathan B. McNair
Assistant Professor of Music Theory and Composition
Cadek Dept. of Music
The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga