SRS - I am not objecting to higher education. Far from it. I object to your intellectual elitism. Undergraduates may or may not have critical thinking skills. Your statement says more about you than it does about them.

My statement shows that I have experience with undergraduates, it has nothing to do with "intellectual elitism." It shows that I work in a university and I am very familiar with undergraduate critical thinking skills, or the lack of them. On a case by case basis, you are going to find a lot of variables in the skills of each student, that goes without saying. Those who "get it" are most likely the ones who will choose to go on to graduate school. Those who get in still have to get through some core courses that are intended to weed out the ones who don't have critical thinking skills. That vetting happens in graduate school because it's a different level of work entirely.

Personally, I find your dismissal of intellectual pursuits and goals as off-putting as the political climate in the U.S. in which intelligence seems to actually work against good candidates. Go figure. Someone smart enough to make things in government work right and build coalitions and they're passed over for a doofus like Dubya.

In American Indian literature there has been an ongoing discussion for many years regarding the use of English by native writers. If they write in their own language the story can be very short, because as Maria Chona said "we understand so much." But if they want to reach a larger audience and get their ideas across, and in the process perhaps set the dominant culture back on it's heels, they must use English. And it's a battle all the way. Gloria Bird and Joy Harjo put out a wonderful collection of short stories with the savvy title Reinventing the Enemy's Language. It's back to semiotics again. You gotta pay attention to semiotics. Go read some Ishamael Reed and you'll see what I'm talking about. Go read Henry Louis Gates. bell hooks. Zora Neale Hurston. They were masters of the language and the nuance you're so concerned about. Go read some Audre Lorde. And while you're at it, go look for Gillermo Gómez-Peña and Ana Castillo. Might as well get some other ethnic spin on English while you're at it. Whether or not any of these people wrote works that were read in colleges, they wrote books that were read by many people. Don't confuse the venue with the message.

SRS