Here's a brief interesting video clip on the state of modern college education.
Thankfully I don't suffer from all the atrocities listed in the video. Some are a result of the education system going down the tubes, some are the student's fault. Given my advancement in my field of study, my class sizes are closer to 30-40 and a lack of interest for some classes forced them to wait until the demand is even large enough for the class size. I don't talk that much on my phone either -- even counting talking to RJ. I also don't care for Facebook although I do have other avenues I spend my time on. I also show up to all my classes (when I can actually remember what times they start) and make use of my TAs.
I'm not the norm, though. With thousands of students across the nation each in all the levels of psychology, sociology, philosophy, etc, things can get bottle-necked and pushed to the way-side.
I might elaborate more on this in the future, but my basic idea of education reform would consist of eliminating the last two year of high school and replacing them with two years of college. Kids used to be expected to be full-time workers and were treated as adults by age 16 or 17, making them now remain in school until 22 just to start life (in debt, having forgotten the majority of what they "learned") is stupid. The last two years of high school contribute nothing that college couldn't, indeed, much of the first two years of college is the last two years of high school just a bit more intense. I would go so far as to argue that the last two years of high school are usually so brain-deading that it hurts students because it puts off higher-level thinking just that much longer while at the same time training them not to think. Under our current system, we raise kids to think on a lower level then throw them into college because it turns out they don't have the basic skills they need from that lower-level system.
It's somewhat ironic, but part of the general education for college exists basically to
undo what high school does. It's not necessarily all that great itself, but it does a better job of what it's supposed to. In high school you're taught to memorize and regurgitate. In college they emphasize understanding. I simply see no reason for most of traditional high school.
Comments (9)
You make a very good point. The point of hashing, rehashing, and endlessly recovering the same material over and over is beyond me. A good thing you were in college by 16.... If, however, a person is not college-bound, it might be time well spent.
The whole thing about going into massive debt ~ especially for a mediocre college experience ~ well, it's just nuts. How a young person can enter into adult life with $100,000 or so in college debt and then face a housing market where housing begins at a few hundred thousand.... What a hideously disadvantaged way to begin. And then both people in the couple have to work, so no one's home with the kids....
Yep. It's a mess.
I was only mentioned once. What's up with that?
RJ, RJ, RJ, RJ, RJ.
There, does that make it up?
I was totally joking.
Now I sound vain!
I love you.
>>Not vain!
and
>Awww!
I love you too.
Great points mentioned. College does tend to push the student out of the simple knowledge phase and into the understanding phase more so than highschool, but I thing much of that is a result of the mathematics, engineering, and sciences departments and not so much the liberal arts side of things. Liberal Arts professors by in large are liberal to the core and use their "lofty" position to propagate their ideology. The last thing they want is for a young student to take and logically asses affirmative action, welfare, social security, immigration, the environment....any number of social/moral items of our day. I know in the world of engineering my teachers push us to the limits of transforming our knowledge into understanding (knowledge meaning knowing facts, understanding meaning knowing what to do with the facts...and possibly someday taking action). Yet for the most part my general education classes have been a "fill their heads full of liberal propaganda" session for which I have to pay for.