Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I'll clarify that I don't agree with much of this. For one thing, I thing college is hugely valuable for things that have nothing to do with what you remember from classes. But it's still an interesting article.
What's College Good For?
College students learn little, and most forget what they do learn
In 2003, the United States Department of Education gave about 18,000 Americans the National Assessment of Adult Literacy. The ignorance it revealed is mind-numbing. Fewer than a third of college graduates received a composite score of “proficient”—and about a fifth were at the “basic” or “below basic” level. You could blame the difficulty of the questions—until you read them. Plenty of college graduates couldn’t make sense of a table explaining how an employee’s annual health-insurance costs varied with income and family size, or summarize the work-experience requirements in a job ad, or even use a newspaper schedule to find when a television program ended. Tests of college graduates’ knowledge of history, civics, and science have had similarly dismal results.
Arum and Roksa cite a study finding that students at one typical college spent 13 hours a week studying, 12 hours “socializing with friends,” 11 hours “using computers for fun,” eight hours working for pay, six hours watching TV, six hours exercising, five hours on “hobbies,” and three hours on “other forms of entertainment.” Grade inflation completes the idyllic package by shielding students from negative feedback. The average GPA is now 3.2. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine...od-for/546590/
This information, while true, is irrelevant. Because many employers demand that their job candidates have that Bachelor's degree, even when the degree has no serious bearing on being able to do the job. So if you want to have a shot at getting a white-collar job and moving up, a college degree is a necessity. It doesn't matter what you learn or how you spend your time in college, employers demand that degree.
Colleges are not to blame for high schools failing to teach graduates how to read at a "proficient" level.
Not knowing the basics of civics, history and science also are grade and high school system failures.
A certain political party has been systematically defunding public education for years and siphoning off tax money earmarked for schools into private school vouchers, thus impoverishing the public school system.
I say get rid of 30% of the public school administrators and pay more to top teachers with that saved money.
Children of all economic levels deserve decent educations.
I also believe state colleges and community colleges should be free to attend.
Colleges are not to blame for high schools failing to teach graduates how to read at a "proficient" level.
Not knowing the basics of civics, history and science also are grade and high school system failures.
A certain political party has been systematically defunding public education for years and siphoning off tax money earmarked for schools into private school vouchers, thus impoverishing the public school system.
I say get rid of 30% of the public school administrators and pay more to top teachers with that saved money.
Children of all economic levels deserve decent educations. I also believe state colleges and community colleges should be free to attend.
With no entrance requirements? Do you realize the collection of numbskulls that you are going to get at these universities before they flunk out? If it's free, they will overwhelm the colleges and drug/alcohol issues will be like nothing anyone's ever seen before. As if we can't award non-productive morons enough already.
ABSOLUTELY agree and I will read the article in more detail later.
I also must give the author mucho kudos for admitting the flaws in the very system that keep them employed and likely well paid.
The author obviously sees in an ideal world a system that brings more benefit society other than just being empty credentials and diplomas for people will be seen as the 'next generation of leaders ... or should I say $$ makers'.
In any case, a lot of people don't care because a lot of people just see school as a means to an end to a job and a job as a means to end to make $ and retire early. But what they don't realize is if the system was improved, everybody would need to work much less...
My assessment (and I'm sure its not universal) is in part driven to college/university profit. I've seen great teachers in college not make tenure or pushed aside because they focused too much at being a good teacher rather than research. I've been to way too many classes that are barely attended by the professor and taught primarily by TAs. Horrible professors that have tenure. College football taking a high priority as a means to drive more revenue... etc... With that there's no motivation to iterate/innovate the education process to the modern labor force.... because that takes effort and costs.
It is a very lucrative industry and the need is driven by the requirements of employers to have that paper. It does mean there "should" be a certain amount of skill or capability proven by the student. It makes the hiring process easier to make a college degree required.... certainly not a guarantee though.
And (Leftist) indoctrination. There's so much parental and societal pressure to get in to the college pipeline.. so everybody accumulates college loan debt and a thorough brainwashing in Leftist political & cultural values.
College is valuable for hard science like engineering, but there are many otherwise useless majors. It's a racket. Here's the warped value system: a student who lives in subsidized housing, attends classes basically part time & parties all weekend.. is more valued by employers than a young adult who works full time right out of high school & provides for himself. Research shows the college grad will make more money over his lifetime and at most entry levels, (simply) for conforming to the college pipeline. Forgive my generalizations, but this basically is what it is..
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
