“If the Greeks are going to change the current approach to education of citizens, then the training of those who teach the Greeks must be altered radically. There is something backwards about the current process–the unhappy state of graduation explains why we produce more killers of Homer than saviors. Morticia, matron of the Adams Family and gardener extraordinaire, could have designed the archetypal PhD. program in Classics in America today, tending her thorny wards, cultivating spurs and prickly stems while carefully pruning off the roses as soon as they bloomed. Homer’s heroes strove “to be always the best in battle and pre-eminent beyond all others.” But graduate school is the great sieve maipulated to pass on the most insignificant particles while discarding the odd and bulky nugget. The best-kept secret is that this system of training is designed to reward exactly the kind of individual who is least likely to think or act like a Greek: narrow-focused, self-promoting, teaching-resistant, and by necessity in these lean times absolutely servile” (Hanson and Heath, Who Killed Homer?, 223)
Wow! That’s rough! Do you agree? Are these statements accurate for Bible or ANE grad. studies? How were your professors? Anything like this? How would you change the PhD process?
*I must add that many have severely critiqued this book. Some of that is to be expected–you try to change things, you have to expect resistance. One of the most vigorous challenges to this book, including challenges of some factual data, is given by Tom Palaima of the University of Texas at Austin. I learned Greek from Tom and I am pleased to say that he is an excellent professor that deeply cares about teaching–he personally keeps the intensive summer Greek program alive at UT; it is a fantastic program run by a fantastic professor. This quote (and those that follow) are meant to start discussion and are picked for their provocative element in order to encourage comments.
