Dr. Edwin Yamauchi knows 26 languages!" The host of the massive retirement party at Miami University continued, "We counted. We actually went through his piles of publications and counted." While working as Yamauchi's graduate assistant, I observed as he learned Russian for researching the Scythians (for his Foes from the Northern Frontier). He switched from first-year to third-year level courses over Christmas break and earned A's in both.

As Yamauchi's doctoral students, we had a rare firsthand view of his indefatigable nature—and of his similar expectations of us. Try studying Sahidic Coptic, Classical Greek, and German simultaneously. Add two seminar classes with dozens of required books. Next add grading duties. The workload beneath Yamauchi was so stringent that "social life" became oxymoronish. Near my breaking point, I asked Professor Jack Temple Kirby how I could possibly continue. While swirling his Zinfandel, he said with his southern charm, "Jerry, you'll learn to read a book a night whether you can or cannot."

I spent a decade doing coursework that year.

Just as Cyrus Gordon pushed Yamauchi, and Yamauchi us, countless others do the same. No easy rides under James Hoffmeier, Walt Kaiser, David Lyle Jeffrey, George Marsden, Helen Astin, Arthur Holmes, and the like. Yet Academically Adrift, a well-researched indictment of higher education, claims that colleges lack rigor and students aren't learning. Their professors lack high expectations. Students are lazy or preoccupied socially. There seem to be too few Yamauchis and Miami learning cultures.

You don't have to count the bricks in a razed building to prove it has fallen. But if you wanted to, you'd likely want the research acumen of Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa and the backing of the Social Science Research Council. Arum and Roksa commit 40 percent of Academically Adrift to their "Methodological Appendix," citations, and sources (pp. 145-248). But before you humanities professors turn your examination ...

Joseph Bentz(Registered User)

September 06, 2011  12:22pm

Here was my favorite portion of the article, found in the next-to-last paragraph: "If you assign students The Structure of Scientific Revolutions and their understanding of paradigm shifts becomes a lifelong help, does a static CLA score matter? What if Atlas Shrugged prompts them to look more critically at others' motives and capacity? Does the CLA capture this type of learning? Can you imagine a serious reflection on Elie Wiesel's Night not being valuable, even if CLA results are flat?" I agree that these assessment tools simply can't measure some of the most important learning that happens in the classroom. As an American literature professor, I know lives may be changed in ways that would not show up in some of this research. Some of the impact of a course happens months or years after the student leaves the classroom. Thank you for this article.

John Wilson(Registered User)

September 03, 2011  9:02pm

Amen to Jeremiah Chaffee's comment.

Jeremiah Chaffee(Registered User)

September 03, 2011  5:58pm

I have been teaching high school for ten years, and in that time the testing fetish has grown and grown. It is a tragedy of our elementary, middle and high schools that our students are tested into submission and hate school because of it. Test are all well and good, but they are not a panacea. To treat them as THE most important goal of education is to do a giant disservice to our students.

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