Maybe they just had nothing worthwhile to say.  I have been a perpetual
"older" student, or at least older then most of my classmates.  I took
classes at night while in the military and after my hitch finished the
B.A. and Master's in the early 80s.  I went back to UVA for grad school
in the early 1990s.  My experience at UVA was similar to yours.  I was
one of three older students among many fresh-faced folks right out of
undergraduate programs.  We all took a two-part reading seminar in
historiography together.  The professors aggressively challenged
political platitudes expressed by students, be they ideologically on the
right or left. (I heard plenty of liberal "talking points" skewered.)
Most couldn't defend these fact-free sentiments in any coherent way, and
perhaps became intimidated. Others seemed to simply take a passive
approach to the whole experience.  I pondered whether this was a result
of our consumerist, sound-byte driven media and culture, but I certainly
don't think it was due to so-called "PC."  The professors challenged
both "PC" and "TC" remarks, as they should.  I recall two of my best
professors being on diametrically opposite sides of the political
spectrum and yet they were very close personally and
intellectually--both fine scholars who truly believed in a vigorous
exchange of ideas.

Gregg Kimball

-----Original Message-----
From: Discussion of research and writing about Virginia history
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of James Brothers
Sent: Wednesday, May 23, 2007 10:36 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [VA-HIST] Should we regret "PC" history?

I would like to add something from my own experience as a student at
Penn, Duke and a grad student at Penn and Wm & Mary. There was a major
shift from the free wheeling debates I experienced as a student at the
University of Pennsylvania in the 70s and Duke University in the 80s to
what I saw more recently at Wm & Mary. If there was discussion in class
it tended to involve three people- the professor and the two old guys in
class (I was one). All of my fellow students had degrees from good
universities, but apparently had little or nothing to say on a wide
range of subjects, and they did very little but take notes. This made
seminars a bit triangular, and not nearly as satisfying as they might
have been. One day the two old guys agreed before one class that we
would not make any comments. The professor stormed out of class after 15
minutes of deafening silence saying "If none of you did the reading you
could have told me!".  
After he left the rest of the class looked accusingly at we two, as if
it was all our fault. There are many possible interpretations as to why
this occured. With what I have seen in other venues, I'm convinced it is
"PC". A free and open debate is virtually impossible when most of the
potential participants are unwilling to say anything that might possibly
be interpreted in way that might offend.

James Brothers, RPA
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