Fragmentation of subject matter

There was a time, in the good old days, when a professor taught his students, no matter what their major interests, what he believed would be best for them. He chose carefully, from the field he knew well, the topics of fundamental or current value that he considered to be of the greatest importance. What he taught had a logical continuity. Today, a professor is more like a cog in a machine; he may be tossed about and buffeted by experts in curriculum construction, by planning and policy committees, by agencies of accreditation, and by financial, or even political pressures. It is small wonder that he finds difficulty in retaining his native enthusiasm for teaching a student what he thinks the student should know.

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