USA TODAY recently published an article on the failings of higher education in the U.S. I know you’re thinking this is about unrealistic standards colleges have toward their students, or possibly the prohibitive costs, redundant course requirements, bureaucratic nonsense, TAs, the tenure system, teachers that can’t teach, or even the saturation of unmotivated and unprepared students. Good news– researchers say you’re wrong. Bad news–you’re…probably right. Shit. Anyway, the article posits that college is actually too easy, and kids now need a challenge. Wait, what?
“There is a net effect related to selectivity that is powerful,” says Princeton University president emeritus William Bowen, lead author of Crossing the Finish Line: Completing College at America’s Public Universities, out today. While everybody does better at stronger schools, “the difference in outcomes … is greater for minorities than for other people,” he says.
First off, this is a classic example of correlation not equaling causation. I don’t plan on reading the book, but sheesh, if that’s what you’re publicizing, I can’t imagine it’s a pithy read.
Part of having your diploma in hand is to show employers that you’re able to stick through a commitment, deal with a bunch of crap along the way, and the realization that things are bigger than you, so it’s important not to be so self-important. There seems to be a sense of entitlement here. If one wants to find a challenge, there are no shortage of challenges out in the world today. To say college isn’t/wasn’t challenging enough strikes me as childish. It sounds like the individual then was either too lazy or too stupid, and frankly, either distinction speaks poorly to their character.
If you’re not challenged enough through the courses themselves, you should have no problem meeting the most minimal requirements and graduating. If that’s genuinely not challenging enough (and it’s great if that’s the case, though I suspect there are fewer geniuses in this study than those purporting to be), go beyond the classroom and/or take different courses you’re interested in and would be challenging. This all sounds like a convenient excuse to dismiss one’s failures while maintaining a superior, smug sense of oneself.
A few things:
- The fact that many students enrolling in college are not proficient in writing, science or math tells me the root of the problem is not with higher education–it’s with “lower” education. Many complain of having to take basic lower-level courses to graduate, which some surmise is simply a way for the college to drain more money out of them. To an extent, that’s probably true. Let us not forget that colleges are still businesses, some public, some not, and their main incentive is not necessarily to educate, but to garner funds. Still, it’s hard to argue that many are not able to do what is required of them, and thus, the need to reenforce those basic composition or math skills, or even teach them for the first time.
- Also, the notion that all kids now have to go to college is ridiculous. A degree does not mean you are smart–it means you are ‘educated’ and could afford school. There are plenty of professions that do not require a college degree that could serve one well, especially trades. This society places entirely too much emphasis on getting everyone to attend college. I disagree that it’s the best thing for a diverse, knowledgeable society. But if we are to use that model, why not use it to emphasize professions that translate more appropriately to the market. Even though my degree is a rough equivalent, there are far too many English majors, art history majors, womyn’s studies majors, etc. If you are not planning on getting your Masters or Doctoral degree in those subjects, or possibly transition it to a “real-world” field, it hardly seems worth it. Though it saddens me to say it, I just don’t see the return on the investment. We need more people that are technically proficient, people that are interested and capable of using science and technology to impact not just those disciplines themselves, but far-ranging fields as well.
From Mark Bauerlein’s book The Dumbest Generation: “Engineering degrees have dropped 20% since 1985. Of the 1.1 million high school seniors in the class of 2002 who took the ACT test, less than 6 percent planned to study engineering, a steep drop from the nearly 9 percent who declared an engineering major a decade earlier. The 2006 American Freshman Survey found that only 0.5 percent of first-year students intended to major in physics, 0.8 percent in math, and 1.2 percent in chemistry, although engineering improved to 8 percent.”
This is not something college can necessarily fix. Yes, there are oodles of problems with the structure, offerings, cost, hypocrisy and sterility of expectation with college. But we have a more fundamental problem: we need students that are more engaged, prepared and motivated. That starts well before college.
