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 [log in to unmask]