As Professors Lay Dying: Selecting a College Amidst an Educational Crisis

As professors in the United States are being paid less and less to teach more and more undergraduates, prospective students need all the information they can get about receiving their tuition-dollars’ worth. About to choose a college? About to make an investment that might exceed a quarter-million dollars? Worried about “ideological indoctrination” on university campuses? Then you need to know a lot about professors. There has been, perhaps, no worse time to be a scholar in the United States than now. The misery experienced by the professoriate has immediate and dramatic effects on the education that undergraduates receive. As Professors Lay Dying seeks to help you answer the following questions: 1. How important are professors to my college education? 2. How seriously do they take the responsibility of teaching undergraduates? 3. What kind of professors are actually in the classroom working with American coeds? 4. Is ideological indoctrination a real danger to the nation’s matriculated youth? 5. What kind of schools should a discerning college shopper look for? 6. Ultimately, why are professors so essential to the delivery of a first-class education? Colleges don’t advertise the state of their faculty—but it might be the most important factor in your decision. This book pulls back the curtain on the profession that shapes the minds of the next generation.

About the Author :
Jacques Berlinerblau is a professor of Jewish Civilization at Georgetown University. He is also an op-ed writer for MSNBC and a scholar whose work has been discussed in fora ranging from the New York Times to NPR to the Chronicle of Higher Education. His work focuses on the interplay between culture and politics, and to this end, he has published thirteen academic books and dozens of scholarly articles. His current research focuses on comedy that triggers massive cultural unrest.

Review :
“This is more than a piece of high-quality observation. Beneath the droll vignettes runs an earnest faith we absolutely must sustain: liberal education and the teachers who prevail are crucial to civil society and enlightened culture. If we allow the noble practice of teaching to deteriorate, Berlinerblau rightly insists, we jeopardize all the other things we hold dear” “A passionate, important jeremiad. . . Berlinerblau writes eloquently about the goal of ‘thoughtfulness’ as the quality that good teachers most want to encourage in their students.” “Berlinerblau’s book often reads like a comic campus novel,” “With remarkable clarity, the book has articulated how professors feel separated from the mainstream, rather than being integral to it.…His book therefore is narrated with hard-earned wisdom and he has alerted the world of academics, on flaws, which need to be addressed in the realms of higher education.” “Whether you are just beginning the college search or are already well on your way to completing your bachelor’s degree—or are a parent of such a student—read As Professors Lay Dying. You will be more informed about what actually goes on in college teaching and counseled on how to seek out really good professors. Teaching is only one component of a college education, albeit an indispensable one.”