[T]he recipients of higher education (along with the parents whose experience is 30 years out-of-date if they had one) do not know in advance what they need. If they did, they wouldn’t need it, and what they often want, at least at the outset, is an education that will tax their energies as little as possible. | Should we give it to them? Absolutely not. Should we settle curricular matters — questions of what subjects should be studied, what courses should be required, how large classes should be — by surveying student preferences or polling their parents or asking Representatives Boehner and McKeon?
—Stanley Fish —Grading Congress (Chronicle)