The Decline of the Scholar and the Decline of Academia

Via Cousin John

The academic scholar, along with the great teacher, is vanishing from the faculties of the universities.

Specialists occupy the places that they leave. The first victims of this process are the students. When the professorial specialists hold a lecture, they have little else to teach that goes beyond their tiny field of expertise. About the areas other than the field of specialization, the one-dimensional expert is as ignorant as the students. When the experts teach their specialization, the content is too advanced for the students to understand and should the experts go into the wider area of the discipline, their discourse becomes amateurish. The decline of wisdom in academia that has happened over the past decades results from this change.

Scholars, Teachers, and the Specialists

More @ Mises