I'm sure there are some serious students at Notre Dame. And I imagine, if one were going to actually find any, they'd be in ROTC, LOL.
As well, I haven't said anything about the intellect of the student body. We come from a homeschooling community where several members have went off to Notre Dame. Very bright students. Interestingly, not real party animals upon their arrival at South Bend. But even these rather studious, serious, previously-homeschooled students, by sophomore or junior year, succumbed to the overall party culture of the institution.
They also report that although there are some truly serious students, large numbers are there to get a degree from a school with a good reputation (and among the distaff population, the most earnestly sought-after degree is a MRS), and not have to work all too hard while obtaining it. This is the self-report from students who were previously homeschooled, and previously, quite serious students.
Our own first-hand experience with the school comes from my son's participation, as a high school student, in an academic conference geared to grad students and the more intellectually well-equipped undergrads. It was a conference on secularism.
We were astonished by several things:
- The relative poor quality of the papers presented by Notre Dame undergraduates and graduate students;
- The level of denial concerning the very existence of a general culture war in our society;
- The overwhelmingly oppressive nature of the Catholic ghetto that prevails at Notre Dame;
- The intellectual unseriousness of the whole affair.
My son's presentation, which fully acknowledged the existence of the culture wars, and laid out battle plans on how to win it, often by taking secularists’ own intellectual weapons and turning those weapons back on them, brought fierce resistance from the Catholic players at the conference, but sad affirmations from the continuing Anglicans who had already been dispossessed of their own patrimony by the secularists within the Episcopagan ecclesial community.
The attitude of most of the Catholics present was, “Can't we all just get along?”
After that weekend, I assured my son that no matter how sweet a deal they presented to him, I wouldn't pressure him to attend Notre Dame.
Fortunately, he received two better offers, and took one of them.
To those who say Notre Dame is worth saving, my own view is that ALL our cultural institutions are worth saving. We have CEDED THE BATTLEFIELD TOO OFTEN in the last century, and WE MUST STOP IT! We must reclaim our cultural heritage, and take the battle to the enemy's territory.
But in terms of cultural institutions that need reclaiming, Notre Dame is perhaps about 13,244th on the list.
Maybe in another few centuries.
These things take time.
sitetest
It’s so nice to see you, friend.