THE ORIGINAL SIN OF BUSINESS SCHOOLS: A LETTER TO THE ECONOMIST (September 29, 2009)

“The original sin of business schools is boosterism,” or so you claim in connection with business professors’ proclivity to puff up the businesses that provide them with the raw material for their studies, as well as lucrative consultancy work (“The Pedagogy of the Privileged,” September 26, 2009). However, I would have thought that the original sin of business schools is, to coin another ugly term, connectivism. During their education in business administration, the privileged forge social connections that will eventually come handy in their businesses, thus ensuring that they remain privileged for a few more generations. Which brings me to your concluding quip that “kings once employed jesters to bring them down to earth” and that “it is time for business schools to do likewise.” Why, the professors prone to boosterism are the very jesters you advocate! More often than not, they can only dream of connectivism that actually brings the privileged to their classrooms.