Most of the "brethren" think that education should equip them with the proper instruments of exploitation so that they can forever trample over the masses. Still others think that education should furnish them with noble ends rather than means to an end.
And through the rest of The Purpose of Education, which Dr. King wrote to Morehouse College in 1948, he concludes:
If we are not careful, our colleges will produce a group of close-minded, unscientific, illogical propagandists, consumed with immoral acts. Be careful, "brethren!" Be careful, teachers!
The theme of my blog indeed seems to be social reform, and it is hard to speak of this change and not refer to Dr. King. My previous entry had a few responses that prompted me to a few questions.
So my questions are: What are we doing to ensure that we are providing the education that we are responsible to provide? Not simply enough to not get fired or bad marks, but are we living up to the moral standard that a teacher should live up to?
How does this education of morality exist and effect our science classes? What is the role of morality and social consciousness in Engineering? (I am not satisfied with the idea that the Engineer needs to have only enough morality to not deliberately choose a bolt that is too small or weak when designing a bridge) As a highly educated individual what is my responsibility to my community and to my brothers and sisters?
I can't speak to the ethics of science education, but I've heard some disheartening things about King's own educational ethics. As far as I can tell (and I haven't been able to track down truly reliable sources outside the wide web world), there was a formal inquiry into his academic writings in the late 80s and it was determined that significant portions of his doctoral dissertation on theology were plagiarized from the work of a classmate. The committee decided against posthumously revoking his PhD, but the I think the dissertation has a Mark McGwire style asterisk attached to it now. Kinda deflated me to hear that.
ReplyDeleteEven if his academic integrity stands on shaky ground, his writing can still provide a springboard for ethical discussion in the realm of education and social reform. No question about that.
From Wikipedia's article on Dr. King's scholastic integrity: "The Martin Luther King, Jr. Papers Project addresses authorship issues on pp. 25-26 of Volume II of The Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr.-
ReplyDeleteKing's actions during his early adulthood indicate that he increasingly saw himself as a preacher appropriating theological scholarship rather than as an academic producing such scholarship..."
As Well as,
"Keith Miller, in Voice of Deliverance: The Language of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Its Sources and elsewhere,[10] argues that such "borrowing", which he terms "voice merging", follows in a long tradition of folk preaching, particularly in the African-American church, and should not necessarily be termed plagiarism. On the contrary, he views King's skillful combination of language from different sources as a major oratorical skill."
So it appears that Dr. King did not necessarily care about "academic integrity" but that may also be a difference in the time and the challenges he faced when pursuing his degree. To obtain his Ph.D from an historically white college, to what degree did he need to be proficient? Similarly, why did he want a Ph.D from this college when he did more to advance through his motivations as a social activist grounded in the doctrine of the Church? Would he have had less respect when speaking or have been given less opportunities if he had not be Dr. King?
That's a good question re: why he would even bother earning a PhD, given the thrust of his life's work. A thorough biography might draw out why he would pursue such a rigorous degree when his groundbreaking work lay outside the academy.
ReplyDeleteI appreciate the oral tradition argument as far as his preaching goes. That's an acceptable rebuttal to charges that he stole his "I have a dream" speech because he quotes other preachers who used similar sentiments (a silly accusation). Preachers and public speakers have a great deal of freedom to paraphrase and quote without citation.
That kind of defense begins to sound like equivocating when applied to something as formal and disciplined as a PhD level comparative study of Tillich's theology, though. By the time he was in graduate school, King could be expected to abide by the Euro-centric scholarly ethic in which he received all of his training. Otherwise he becomes a disembodied spiritual superhero and the noble social ends of his work can somehow justify lesser sins along the way.
I doubt that most people who say "Dr. Martin Luther King" have a concept of his earning a degree in Theology from Boston University, but the title definitely carries prestige, then and now. Calling him "Martin King" or "Michael King" has a leveling and demythologizing effect, like calling Ludwig van Beethoven "Louie" as people who knew him apparently did.
If I understand the Baptists' egalitarian and charismatic sense of leadership, then the title "Reverend" is not critically important, either-- at least, not to the degree that it is in more formal Protestant traditions like Methodism and Presbyterianism.
Ultimately, I think the weight of his social work would have carried the day without the "Doctor." Martin King seems to have been capable without formal designations.
Landon, more important than the academic integrity of Rev/Dr. King, are your questions "What are we doing to ensure that we are providing the education that we are responsible to provide? ... are we living up to the moral standard that a teacher should live up to?...As a highly educated individual what is my responsibility to my community and to my brothers and sisters?"
ReplyDeleteI would say that high standards are the key to high achievement. Universities can be great institutions and communities in which to anchor programs promoting social change.
An example of someone anchoring social change at a university (Scott Geller, Prof of Psychology, industrial safety specialist, founder of social movement, actively caring for people)
http://activelycaringforpeople.org/about
http://www.safetyperformance.com/About/about.asp
http://www.vt.edu/spotlight/impact/2010-02-08-giving/campaign-giving.html
A specific engineering example of environmental change and scholarship:
http://www.cee.vt.edu/index.php?do=view&content=0&apps=11&level=2&id=33&news=111
Sorry all these links are to Virginia Tech pages, I grew up in Blacksburg and my dad still teaches at Tech so I know the people and the institution better than I do the institutions at which I was actually a student and employee :)
Catherine
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