Universities are the cathedrals of the modern age. They shouldn't have to justify their existence by utilitarian criteria.
Interpretation
Universities are vital institutions that should not be judged solely based on their practical benefits.
David Lodge's quote emphasizes the importance of universities as centers of knowledge and culture, akin to the cathedrals of the past. He argues that these institutions should not be forced to justify their value based on utilitarian metrics, such as job preparation or economic output, but rather be appreciated for their role in fostering critical thinking, creativity, and the pursuit of knowledge.
In practice
This quote can be used in a speech at a graduation ceremony to highlight the importance of education.
to read is to surrender oneself to an endless displacement of curiosity and desire from one sentence to another, from one action to another, from one level of a text to another. The text unveils itself before us, but never allows itself to be possessed; and instead of trying to possess it we should take pleasure in its teasing
When I was going for my graduate degree, I decided I was going to make a feature film as my thesis. That's what I was famous for-that I had my thesis film be a feature film, which was 'You're a Big Boy Now.'
Though the academic authorities are actually proud of conducting everything by means of Examinations, they seldom indulge in what religious people used to descibe as Self-Examination. The consequence is that the modern State has educated its citizens in a series of ephemeral fads.
Oh! I am delighted with the book! I should like to spend my whole life in reading it.
When you have all these new police officers and resource officers coming into schools, what I'm worried is going to happen is we're going to increase the school-to-prison pipeline, which disproportionately affects students of color and lower social status.
Given the way universities work to reinforce and perpetuate the status quo, the way knowledge is offered as commodity, Women's Studies can easily become the place where revolutionary feminist thought and feminist activism are submerged or made secondary to the goals of academic careerism
Even in high school, a rule that permits only one point of view to be expressed is less likely to produce correct answers than the open discussion of countervailing views.
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