Journalist John Merrow '63 received the Harvard Graduate School of Education's annual Alumni Council Award and delivered the keynote address at the school's commencement ceremonies on June 7. Merrow, who currently produces The Merrow Report for the Public Broadcasting Station's MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour, was a sports writer for The Dartmouth and reported part-time for Sports Illustrated and The New York Times as an undergraduate.
Merrow's recent work includes the 2005 PBS documentary, "Declining by Degrees: Higher Education at Risk," which tackles decreasing public funding for higher education and what he described as a trend toward emphasizing research over teaching at the college level.
In an interview with The Dartmouth, Merrow said that the government has historically made substantial investments in sending people to college, citing as an example the GI Bill, which paid for the education of those returning from World War II.
"That's changed, now we say if you want to go to college, pay for it your damned self," he said. "You're going to make a sh*tload of money, so pay for it yourself. That's a real shame because today your family's economic status is the main determinant of where you go to college, and we know that intelligence is distributed randomly."
The second major issue in higher education, Merrow said, is the increasing focus on research and what he called a "non-aggression pact" between students and research-focused professors.
"Teaching and learning aren't high priorities. ... The professor says that if you leave me alone so I can do my research, I'll give you a good grade," Merrow said. "Whereas it used to be sink or swim, now it's just kind of float along."
Merrow said that he believes this research primacy is an issue at Dartmouth, though he was not sure of its magnitude.
"Does it apply to Dartmouth? I'm sure that there are any number of students who don't take it that seriously and take it as a prolonged adolescence," he said. "Institutionally though, there ought to be incentives for that not to happen. I know that there's a lot of pressure to keep professors teaching classes."
Merrow said that one thing that all schools could do to improve the quality of the learning experience would be to require teaching training for all new professors. Most professors are hired for their research accomplishments or similar credentials without consideration for their teaching experience, according to Merrow.
"I think a lot of times [it is] because you guys are 20 years old and don't know that you don't have to put up with that crap, someone just droning on and on, or professors just don't know that they don't have to put up with students sleeping in class, but they do, because it's sort of the easy route."
In addition to the Harvard award, Merrow, who also reports on education-related issues on National Public Radio, has also received a George Foster Peabody Award, several Emmy Award nominations, and 11 consecutive awards from the Education Writers Association and other organizations.
