Whitehead

Whitehead begins his argument by narrowing down the general problems he finds with the Universities to the specific ones he believes he can discuss. He narrows it all the way down to the school of business with many universities which was a new thing during the late 1920’s and early 30’s. He believes that this school illustrates all that is wrong with universities. His main belief is revealed about half way through the document when he states “Thus the proper function of a university is the imaginative acquisition of knowledge”. This statement while somewhat confusing at first becomes clearer once you analyze a few of his earlier remarks. He really believes that a university is here to prepare us for an intellectual career. I think what he means by this is that we will learn are real life situations once we get there but for the time being learning is learning and no one should look at it any differently.
“Imagination is a contagious disease. It can not be measured by the yard, or weighed by the pound and then delivered to the students by the members of the faculty.”
This quote really stuck out in my mind because he finally points out that we can not be taught all that we need to know at school. Part of what we learn is up to for us to figure out. I personally believe that there is no way that everything we learn in school can be verbally delivered to us. It is up to us to learn some of life’s lessons and become imaginative to create things and get yourself out of certain situations.