Posted on 08/27/2010 9:04:28 PM PDT by iowamark
School begins for many this week, and there are some hard truths about higher education that few wish to explore, let alone acknowledge.
1. Not everyone should go to college. Getting a higher education can be a marvelous experience, but it's just not for everyone.
I know of no country that attempts to educate everyone at this level. College was originally designed for students who are at least a standard deviation in academic aptitude above the mean. That eliminates all but about 16 percent of the population, and then a lot of those folks are wasting their time and money at a university.
John is a brighter than average high school student, but is not at the top of his class. He is good with his hands and understands how things work. His parents send him to college to become a lawyer.
He is in the bottom 20 percent of his law class. He graduates with an immense debt load and is considered to be a poor lawyer. He doesn't get much respect.
Suppose instead that John goes to a trade school to become a repairman. He is in the top 20 percent of this group. John the Repairman is highly respected. He has almost no debt, and he makes more money than John the Lawyer.
As an added bonus, society is in need of good repair persons, but we have no need for more bad lawyers.
2. Getting a college degree doesn't mean that you know anything. Modern universities don't require that students be knowledgeable to graduate. This sounds odd and administrators and teachers would claim that it is not true, but ask a simple question: What does a student need to know from a university to be allowed to graduate?
The answer is "nothing."
Students are required to complete a number of tasks. There is a long list of requirements. If they check each one off, they graduate. Students will work hard for grades; they will not necessarily work hard to know something. Modern schools have disassociated the two. Students memorize material, regurgitate it on an exam, and go their way.
Many students graduate knowing next to nothing. Don't take my word for it. I have been challenging my colleagues to test their students for years. I would love to be wrong on this, but ...
3. Grades don't reflect reality. There are entire areas of universities that give an automatic A to everyone unless they do poorly, and then they are given an A-minus. Much of this results from the improper use of student evaluations of teaching. Having students rate teachers is not a bad idea in itself, but it has evolved into a counter-productive travesty.
Imagine that at your workplace, several times every year, people you associate with are asked to fill out a questionnaire about you. They will remain anonymous and can say anything they wish. Management admits that it doesn't know what the surveys actually measure, but you will be denied merit pay, and perhaps even fired if your scores are low.
That in a nutshell is how universities use student evaluations.
Critics, and some supporters, maintain that the only reason that this system is maintained is administrative sloth and student crowd control.
Universities are essentially demanding that professors be well-liked by their students or they will be punished. Students are students because they don't know what they should know. The bottom line is that the evaluation system has resulted in grade inflation and a corresponding reduction in what students actually know.
Research over the last 10 years from all across the U.S. has consistently shown that teachers who get higher student evaluations produce students who tend to do more poorly in subsequent classes.
4. Like the housing market bubble, we may be approaching an education bubble. Paying a lot for an education makes sense if the returns are greater, but the cost of education is rising faster than the benefits. This has serious implications, which I will address in a forthcoming column.
I have read that only 25% of the population has college degrees. I would agree that it’s not for everyone, especially the hard subjects. I’m an economist, but I don’t think I’d make a great M.D. On the other hand, I’ve met people with PHDs that were dumb as rocks. :-/
The real hard truth about college is that States are wasting money subsidizing college. No proof that the investment is worth it.
State schools should be phased into self sustaining businesses.
Never happen. They'd sink in 5 years. (Wouldn't be such a bad thing even so!)
I really can’t argue with much here. Better schools are careful about teacher evaluations. One of the best tracked us for two years after graduation and asked us to do evaluations to compare against the current class results. Often, that hard-nosed professor that makes you work to earn a “B” and really work to earn an “A” provides the most valuable real life lesson.
Almost always college for people devolves to a line on a resume and a penchant for a particular sports team- plus the insufferable belief in one’s own intellectual superiority.
It's why I like books and my dogs and gardening. People are great in theory, but come up short in reality.
I gave an D or F to 30% of my sophomore engineering class last semester. I also have yet to bother to read the short synopsis of student evals I got tossed in my mailbox. My boss doesn't read his either.
I teach in an engineering college that has standards to uphold.
Don't forget the large number of kids who go to college but don't graduate. I imagine a significant portion of overinflated college costs go to social programs on campus to help unqualified students try to stay in college. By enticing those who are not qualified to go to college is an evil perpetrated by our society on those victims.
Many people would profit more from college at 30 than at 18.
many colleges admir kids who they know will not make the cut, intellectually or emotionally. They just take their money and let them sink. .Just cashcows.
And as you know, a huge proportion of degrees are in education/psychology. Engineering is a vocation. Most degrees don’t lead directly to a vocation.
I just started college for the Second time. The last time I went I was 17,I am taking the same thing this time because all I did before was party. I will be 49 years old next month.
On the other hand, John may make a brilliant lawyer. Being good with your hands indicates intelligence and creativity.
There are plenty of reasons John might not seem optimal at the moment. Maybe he's got a wild hair up his butt, raging hormones, immaturity, lack of background experience, lack of self discipline, emotional trauma, emotional instability-- to name a few. But he can grow out of these impediments.
History is full of examples of less than stellar students who excelled. Tommy Franks, for example, flunked out of college-- that's why he went into the army.
How would tracking these lackluster students into some union dominated trade, and keep in mind that they have their socializing and training systems, be any better?
It's not whether or not they to college, but when they go.
There was something in Goldwater’s suggestion of UMT. Of course, draftees were often the despair of drill sergeants. But a lot of boys learned that they had a lot of growing up to do, and fast.
I taught with Dennis for 20+ years before I retired from the College of Business at UNI. Always got along great with him. We had many an interesting conversation in the hallways of the business building. Smart man, very conservative.
I have to agree. I failed out of college for three consecutive semesters. Had I succeeded, I would be a lousy engineer. I was a used car salesman, worked my way upo to GM and now I work for a bank. College isn’t everything.
I just started college for the second time-
Good for you. I paid my matriculation fee the day I turned 47, to get a degree. Raised my family first- glad I did it and even with all the politics I would go it again in a heart beat.
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