Mason Hartman

“Many contemporary critics of higher education similarly posit a Golden Age; but no one knows when it was supposed to exist.”
― Mark C. Carnes, Minds on Fire: How Role-Immersion Games Transform College

“Senior scholars, insulated by tenure, pawn undergraduate instruction onto overburdened adjuncts and unprepared grad students. Beleaguered instructors ward off student resentment by offering fluff courses, assigning little work, and bestowing As with glad-handed largesse. This 'non-aggression' pact enables students to enjoy the social aspects of college without the inconvenience of doing much academic work, and it allows professors to focus on research (or carpentry or yoga) unencumbered by pestering students.”
― Mark C. Carnes, Minds on Fire: How Role-Immersion Games Transform College

“The central argument is not that higher education is all wrong, but that it is only half right. Our predominant pedagogical system — rational, hierarchical, individualistic, and well-ordered — often ignores aspects of the self relating to emotion, mischievous subversion, social engagement, and creative disorder.”
― Mark C. Carnes, Minds on Fire: How Role-Immersion Games Transform College

“Students relished times when Reacting games careened into absurdity, such as when a young woman, as a Ming scholar, delivered a persuasive speech on why women should not speak in public, or when a disciple of Gandhi denounced modernity while referring to notes on his iPad.”
― Mark C. Carnes, Minds on Fire: How Role-Immersion Games Transform College