SHORT TAKES : Southerners Less Curious: Haley

“Roots” author Alex Haley said he found students at Southern colleges less curious than those elsewhere.

“And that’s difficult for me to say because I consider the South my home,” the Tennessee author said Tuesday.

Haley, who spoke at Columbus College as part of Black History Month, said in an interview that “students down South seem less dynamic than those in other parts of the country” and cited the University of California at Berkeley and Harvard as examples of campuses where curiosity reigns.

What bothered Haley was a question-and-answer session with students before his noon address at Columbus College.

“There were maybe two or three questions, that’s all,” he said. “You’d like to think students would be more curious than that. It certainly showed to me a languid approach to education. I wish I had the ability to light a fire under them. Don’t they realize the importance of the times we live in?”