Mark Edmundson Consumerism

In Professor Mark Edmundson’s essay, where the main thesis was consumerism in the American modern college educational system, he presents himself as an english professor at the University of Virginia who he cares about his students and how they learn. He explained that, while he received good feedback from his students through their evaluations about his teaching method, he feels that he is being too easy on his students and he isn’t teaching them the way he would like. He also explains how he usually has to use a joke or an “off-the-wall question” to get the physical class moving. In this way, he is merely entertaining his class, rather than teaching them. He later compared himself to a professor that asked the two questions of his students: “What book did you most dislike in this course? What intellectual or characterological flaws in you does that dislike point to?” This comparison is used to represent that he has lightened his teaching style to match today’s consumer attitude, rather than focusing on the education of the students.

He presents himself as a well researched man who knows precisely what he is talking about, but sees a major flaw in the American modern college educational system that needs to be addressed before the American society as a whole falls to pieces. His attitude is one of excitement, as he points out this flaw and exerts such energy towards correcting it. He also shows on occasion the opposite relaxed attitude, in that he is trying to make the point, but he doesn’t want it to be lost in the energy of his