Dude, where is my education?

Enjoying a classical education, I was always brought up to believe that the meaning of the word “university” was related to the Latin terminology universitas scientiae, or “completeness of all knowledge”. This is how I set out to conduct my studies – with a major degree of proficiency in one or two schools, but with the option to delve into a variety of subjects ranging from anthropology to zoology, from philosophy to international relations. Alas, this was not to be, as universities evidently no longer serve to create an intellectual elite, but to breed everyone to the same level of stupidity.

Coming from an economic crisis, the next generation will probably make the same mistakes again, because in the increasingly fashionable multiple-choice testing they are not advised to analyse things with a sharp mind, but simply pick one of four to five “correct” answers … seek not for solutions but repeat like sheeple that which you are indoctrinated. I witnessed this at university in Scotland already, independent thought was forbidden or at least very frowned upon – I used to say that opinions are like backsides: everyone has one … but in effect there were always only two opinions coming up in a pub talk: The official, taught one; and mine.

What is more worrying though is the truncation of all things to do with our Indo-European past; for instance the Hellenistic institute still exists here in Innsbruck, but isn’t allowed to accept any more new students. It’s probably just a question of time until it is stricken from the inventory altogether. Old English was no longer offered at the institute for English and American studies, Old French is absent from the French – let alone the English – curriculum, and the German students are no longer familiar with phonological laws.

After an ill-fated four-year stint at law school in Scotland, I decided almost precisely one year ago to return to my native Austria to study something that really interested me – this was to be Indo-European Linguistics and European Ethnology. But I didn’t even get that far: After 86 years of being able to start a degree in European Ethnology, it is now being reduced to a Masters degree only, whilst the basics were crammed into the History degree – as though our culture was something dead! But that was just the beginning…

I spent a fair while contemplating what to do instead, so I settled on Linguistics and History – after all, it’s also an interesting subject. To know the present, and to plan the future ahead, we must know about our past. But that ended up less rewarding than I thought, the new curriculum in History is fairly idiotic in the way it is organised. It has resulted in reducing from me the historical interest to near enough zero within a time-span of only two semesters. Stealing from me something that was first kindled in me by my grandfather during all those forest walks, fuelled by my amazingly supportive teacher at school, and later helped to wake my fascination with all things about our Germanic and Indo-European past is now quickly becoming my biggest burden.

How come? Well, as we should be aware the NWO and its loyal denizens have their fingers everywhere, and they decided some ten years ago that the traditional method of gaining a degree in European countries was no longer good enough, and that we had to follow the American example of a three-way-parted system. Officially this was heralded as an option to make it easier to change universities between EU countries and a comparability of degrees … yeah, right.

As it turns out, most modules don’t even count, though that isn’t something new, at least not to me. In Scotland, we had a girl taking a degree in Sociology, and she lost an entire year due to her change from a German institution. After all our grand bureaucrats have decided that subjects only count if they are named exactly the same, for a minimum amount of flexibility. The curricula are thus fairly strict, with relatively little choice of subjects to fill up your required amount of lessons.

In Linguistics I was lucky enough to still fall into the old curriculum that allows for more flexibility: A seminar on Celtic given names could be counted either for “Interpretation of source material”, for “Celtology” or even for “Culture and History of Indo-Europeans”. Optional subjects were free of choice, and as long as it somehow touched the subject matter, it is permitted. But then came the next hurdle…

After all, so the rector insisted, all must be fitted to the new curriculum. Typically having fewer students, the Indo-European part of Linguistics is now a footnote in the new curriculum – and all lectures and seminars must be offered to fit with the new curriculum. I am not blaming my lecturers, they battled hard to ensure linguistics was to continue to be a subject at all — as we all know, language is unimportant, and the economy doesn’t need it, but needs more journalists, economists, psychologists and sociologists (then again, with the spiritual defect befalling our times, it is no surprise that the latter two are increasingly needed).

Half of the institute comes from said Indogermanistik branch that Innsbruck is so renowned for, but still couldn’t save it … the widely-famous emeritus, Wolfgang Meid, must be sitting at home burying his 80-year-old face in his hands at the knowledge of what happened to his beloved Celtological studies – reduced from eight hours to an optional offer under the bracket of “Western Indo-European Languages” in the Masters’ programme.

So I sit here, wondering how I will manage to somehow collect my – added together – 14 lessons in Celtology and Ancient Indian (Sanskrit, Vedic, etc.). One way or the other I will have to battle through though … if there’s no one willing to keep on fighting for a dying branch then the next generation will indeed be attempting to derive Mekka and Medina from Slavic or Vedic and perhaps presuppose some link to an ancient Aryan (id est, Indo-Iranian) civilisation in the Arabic peninsula.

Perhaps, just perhaps, at a point when all but a few have forgotten where we came from, and all have near-enough lost their speech and culture to the extent that they’ll be the wildly babbling Barbarians the ancient Greeks always took us for, they will begin to miss something they always took as for granted, and reconsider their stance. Just hope that it won’t be too late…

Tags: Arabic peninsula, Austria, Bologna Process, Education, EU, French, indo european, Innsbruck, NWO, University Reform, Wolfgang Meid

Category: Columnists, Education, Sigurd