Can We Survive the Class of 1984?

A CHALLENGE

Room 101 in George Orwell’s 1984 was a nightmare room, a place where each person confronted “the worst thing in the world.” For Winston Smith it was rats, for others it was “burial alive or death by fire, or by drowning, or by impalement, or fifty other deaths.” In many cases worse things than death awaited those who entered. Until recently, college professors have no doubt feared a variety of possible Rooms 101: a room with a tenure committee composed of men wearing the uniform of Allied Van Lines; a room with an editor who suggests major manuscript revisions and then decides not to publish the book; any room in a college-owned faculty house. But in recent years a new fear has emerged, one that many would argue is now swiftly becoming a reality: a fear of students, of having to face a Room 101-ful of illiterate, ignorant, and insolent adolescents who eschew assignments and attendance, expect A’s, accept B’s, and go to grievance committees for C’s. A mortarboard jungle. By 1984, who knows what sorts of students will be enrolling in college?

DD

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Daniel Dyer

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A CHALLENGE

Room 101 in George Orwell’s 1984 was a nightmare room, a place where each person confronted “the worst thing in the world.” For Winston Smith it was rats, for others it was “burial alive or death by fire, or by drowning, or by impalement, or fifty other deaths.” In many cases worse things than death awaited those who entered. Until recently, college professors have no doubt feared a variety of possible Rooms 101: a room with a tenure committee composed of men wearing the uniform of Allied Van Lines; a room with an editor who suggests major manuscript revisions and then decides not to publish the book; any room in a college-owned faculty house. But in recent years a new fear has emerged, one that many would argue is now swiftly becoming a reality: a fear of students, of having to face a Room 101-ful of illiterate, ignorant, and insolent adolescents who eschew assignments and attendance, expect A’s, accept B’s, and go to grievance committees for C’s. A mortarboard jungle. By 1984, who knows what sorts of students will be enrolling in college?