Prager University

Dennis Prager defines himself as someone who likes "clarity over agreement." In this case we agree. I listen to Prager when I am in the car. He often has some very interesting guests, and for the most part he is a skilled interviewer. One area where I disagree with him is his constant nattering about the state of American higher education. He has frequently stated that most American universities do not advance learning. He has made numerous negative comments about how universities are organized. He has made, in my opinion, numerous gross generalizations that ignore realities in higher education.

A few months ago he began something called Prager University. It is a short series of video tutorials about issues of passion for him. The ones that I have seen are both clever and informative. But I wonder why he would use the term university to describe his educational activities.

In my mind a university should be a place of dialogue and assessment. He collects fees, that are user based - somewhat like the tuition paid in Adam Smith's time. He establishes a transcript - based on individuals watching the (now 4) different video programs. But the "university" has but one faculty. There is hardly a university commons where the collaborative work of a university takes place. A university should also have some coherence in its offerings. There is also little understanding of whether the viewers (students?) have actually learned something in the presentations. The first four presentations are each interesting but hardly linked into a coherent curriculum. And while the presentations are interesting and informative they could hardly be called rigorous.

I wish Prager would back off of his diatribes about higher education. Every institution in society, including talk radio, could improve. But while his criticisms are often on point, he paints with entirely too broad a brush.