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TRADITIONAL NEW ENGLAND PREP SCHOOL TO DUMP ALL BOOKS
New Criterion - Cushing Academy, in Ashburnham, Massachusetts, looks like a traditional New England prep school. It boasts the ivied halls, the well-kempt playing fields, a venerable pedigree dating back to 1865. . . Thomas Parkman Cushing, who originally endowed the school, was careful to stipulate that it be provided, in addition to other accoutrements befitting an educational establishment, with a "suitable library."
James Tracy, the current headmaster, finds the whole idea of a library, and the objects they traditionally contain, positively quaint. Speaking to The Boston Globe, he actually said, apparently without embarrassment, "When I look at books, I see an outdated technology, like scrolls before books." . . .
According to the Globe, Cushing is "one of the first schools in the country to abandon its books." Can we hope that it will also be one of the last? In pursuit of a "bookless campus," Cushing is disburdening itself of its library's 20,000 books and spending $500,000 to establish a "learning center. . . Cushing (tuition, room, and board $42,850, plus a $1,500 "technology fee") will be spending $42,000 for some large flat-screen monitors to display data from the Internet as well as $20,000 for "laptop-friendly" study carrels. In place of the reference desk, the Globe reports, Cushing is building "a $50,000 coffee shop that will include a $12,000 cappuccino machine." So, at a moment when American students are positively inundated with various forms of electronic media competing for, and eroding, their attention, an institution entrusted with (in Thomas Cushing's words) "strengthening and enlarging the minds of the rising and future generations" decides to jettison one of civilization's most potent aids in furthering that project. Fifty grand per annum for a school without books. . . .
James Tracy, the current headmaster, finds the whole idea of a library, and the objects they traditionally contain, positively quaint. Speaking to The Boston Globe, he actually said, apparently without embarrassment, "When I look at books, I see an outdated technology, like scrolls before books." . . .
According to the Globe, Cushing is "one of the first schools in the country to abandon its books." Can we hope that it will also be one of the last? In pursuit of a "bookless campus," Cushing is disburdening itself of its library's 20,000 books and spending $500,000 to establish a "learning center. . . Cushing (tuition, room, and board $42,850, plus a $1,500 "technology fee") will be spending $42,000 for some large flat-screen monitors to display data from the Internet as well as $20,000 for "laptop-friendly" study carrels. In place of the reference desk, the Globe reports, Cushing is building "a $50,000 coffee shop that will include a $12,000 cappuccino machine." So, at a moment when American students are positively inundated with various forms of electronic media competing for, and eroding, their attention, an institution entrusted with (in Thomas Cushing's words) "strengthening and enlarging the minds of the rising and future generations" decides to jettison one of civilization's most potent aids in furthering that project. Fifty grand per annum for a school without books. . . .
5 Comments:
Interesting. The headmaster's comment about "outdated technology, like scrolls before books" implies that if his school had a library full of parchment scrolls and Egyptian papyri he would want to see them carted away asap. How did America's educated class slide so fast down the tubes that even the head of an "elite" prep school is totally disconnected from civilization?
My concern about all of this "electronic" text may seem a little 'Orwellian' to you, viz. just look how easy it is to change any text to conform to the current religico-political ideology! I've read that during Soviet times, editors had to go back and change the text of hard copies to conform to the latest ideololical 'Zeitgeist'. With our 'e-publications' does this not make it so much easier to change "history"?
Rest assured that although Cushing has decided to take such an outrageous step, other "elite" Preparatory schools are quite baffled by their decision and have no plans to follow.
As a parent of a student at one of the most prestigious schools,I have seen nothing but astonishment and head shaking as we try to understand or grasp the motivation behind this.
Most parents agree as do many if not all students that I have talked with, that if this was a decision made at their own school they/we would seek admission elsewhere.
I highly doubt that any other school will follow Cushings example.
Maybe Cushing should replace all their teachers with online classes ?
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The time to read is any time: no apparatus, no appointment of time and place, is necessary. It is the only art which can be practised at any hour of the day or night, whenever the time and inclination comes, that is your time for reading; in joy or sorrow, health or illness. Holbrook Jackson
It is what you read when you don't have to that determines what you will be when you can't help it. Oscar Wilde
The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who cannot read them. Mark Twain
Books are the treasured wealth of the world and the fit inheritance of generations and nations. Henry David Thoreau
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