I'm a believer that the current US higher-education system is dysfunctional, and that it is at some level a Ponzi scheme that creates PhD's who then get teaching jobs, and ever-expand university-level education because more PhD's are minted than there are seats for them. This happens in concert with the devaluing - both economically and culturally - the craft work done by people who typically haven't had college degrees as a gateway to their careers.

So I was happy to see an article on this - 'In the Basement of the Ivory Tower,' subtitled 'The idea that a university education is for everyone is a destructive myth. An instructor at a "college of last resort" explains why.'

Until, of course I read it and I immediately understood why the author wrote under a pseudonym as 'Professor X' - because forgetting the students whose efforts he devalues, anyone who isn't deeply elitist would be tempted to go bitchslap him into sensibility with a copy of Strunk and White.

Go read the article, and see if maybe your reaction to it mirrors mine:

"Maybe it's just that you suck as a teacher..."