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December 3, 2003

 

Little Value in
Thought?

Dear colleagues, students, alumni, others:

This past Wednesday, Premier Harris addressed a
summit on the future of the universities. On that
occasion he said that he sees little value in academic
degrees in the humanities, geography, and sociology,
in which “The graduates have very little hope of con-
tributing to society in any meaningful way.” (Globe

x and Mail, Nov. 21, Toronto Star, Nov 20)

1am writing to ask you to take a little time out of
your day to consider this remark, especially in the
context of this government's other actions on educa-
tion, and to make a public response. I have tried to
keep this note brief, because I hope that reading it
takes only the first minute of that time.

At the least, Harris's remark is extremely offensive.
At the worst it is phenomenally stupid and danger-
ous. For those of us who have been educated in these
fields, and especially for those of us who teach in
them, we are being told that we are unlikely to con-
tribute anything meaningful. (When I think of
Harris's contributions to society I find myself think-
told that as a rere he wasn’t moral igteh to join
the army.)

I wish I could say that I don’t understand what
Harris means by “meaningful,” but unfortunately |
suspect I understand all too well. Reflection, educa-
tion, and research on anything to do with the human
world are deemed meaningless unless they immediate-
ly make money. It’s that the humanities and social
sciences are the traditional home of meaning, but
Harris sees none there. From John Snobelin’s early
plans to create a crisis in education to Bill 160, this
government has attacked education. But now the
principle guiding its moves are clear: This is an attack
on THINKING.

The Harris government would like to create an
Ontario in which “unproductive” thinking is strongly
discouraged. Critical reflection may be good for
democracy, for justice, for a virtuous society, for a
vibrant culture, but these are not the goals of this
government. And Harris is short-sighted enough to
believe that he can neglect those goals in favour of
business, that business can flourish without any broad
education.

I would like to ask you to write a letter, long or
short, about the importance of education. For most
of you who receive this message this is an easy and
congenial form of protest, and one for which you can
draw on your own thoughts on and experiences of
education. If we each write a letter, and send or fax
those letters to local and national newspapers, with
copies to our MPs and to Harris, the effect could be
overwhelming.

In addition, I would like to ask you to circulate this
message as widely as you can, to use the formal and
informal networks that email creates to send this
request to friends, colleagues, and students across the
province.

Sergio Sismnodo

Assistant Professor
Philosophy and Sociology
Queen’s University, Kingston

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