The Ivory Tower

Ivory Tower, n.

A condition of seclusion or separation from the world; in general, protection or shelter from the harsh realities of life (OED online, 2012).

I can't remember where or when I first heard the term, the Ivory Tower. For some reason, it makes me think of my father reading J.R.R. Tolkien to myself and my brother when we were children. I believe that Gandalf, the wizard, had to report to an ivory tower at some point, although I may be making this up.

Apparently, the origins of the word are not from a bed-time story, but the songs of Solomon, "Thy neck is as a tower of ivory" (King James Bible, Song of Solomon, 7:4). It later became an epithet for Mary, largely due to the idea of the purity of Mary, mother to the son of God.

The Modern English usage took the biblical idea of purity and twisted it. In 1911, a text entitled, laughter by C. S. H. Brereton & F. Rothwell described a purity that was separate from reality, "Each member [of society] must be ever attentive to his social surrounding; he must avoid shutting himself up in his own peculiar character as a philosopher in his ivory tower" (OED, 2012). The Ivory Tower has become a particular critique of Academia whose subject matter can have little bearing outside the realm of academia itself.

Gandalf aside, my personal experiences with the Ivory Tower are many and varied. I am currently in my eighth year of post-secondary instruction, having received an English degree, then going back for an Education degree, and now pursuing a Master's of Education. I have been told by fellow teachers that a Master's degree is largely a waste of time. The Ivory tower's walls are too thick and too high to see very far. The theoretical musings of its professors are too oblique and too vague for any practical application. I was instructed that my best bet was to jump through the hoops, get the degree (and the subsequent increase in pay), and move on.

This blog is my attempt to scale the tower's walls, to find a middle-ground between the practical and the theoretical, to lash the tower to the school and prove, to myself and to others, the purity of the Ivory Tower is not its downfall.