Rethinking Higher Education

The problem with higher education these days is it's hard to look up at academic standards that barely reach my ankles...

Completely agree with the concept of apprenticeships. Both my kids graduated from college with degrees they don't use or didn't need. Education today is not what it was 40 years ago where free and open debate was encouraged. They are indoctrination centers now!

I don't care how many $64 words you know. If you can't fix your own toilet or do your own brakes, well the future doesn't bode well for you.

Federal guaranteed student loan money for colleges is welfare for eggheads.

As noted, 60% of people drop out. Most of them don't belong in college to begin with. Note that the ONE thing that colleges should be able to do is EDUCATE people. They are failing 60% of the time. That means they are doing lots of wrong things in the process. They are admitting people have no chance of success. They are not teaching the skills needed for college success. They are not demanding rigor and the students know it and dumb down their efforts. Colleges FLUNK the education test. The product they produce is snake oil. This is also a condemnation of our K - 12 public education system that should KNOW the kids in their local systems. They should know which kids belong in college. They should be blunt with the parents of kids who don't measure up to college standards and find alternative career paths for them. Most damning, they are failing to teach their students and the same problems as above apply. In whole, they aren't doing their jobs, which has been known for decades now. They are protected by a system of advancement through longevity instead of merit. Parents that coddle their kids and blame teachers instead of their own kids is another cause for failure. Finally, you get the government handing out huge amounts of money for failure. Here's a suggestion. NO university loan money for a student who has poor academic qualifications. The only assistance they can get is toward 2 years of a local community college (no room & board) and career skills programs, NOT foo foo liberal arts degrees. If they are successful, ONLY THEN would they qualify for additional loans at a university. Education is a prime example of a "successful progressive program". "Everyone" gets an education handed out like lollipops and unearned. Like what you got?

Higher education is highly overrated. Teaching colleges ( indoctrination centers) set the bar so low, you can trip over it. I know because I have an M.Ed. Started out thinking teaching would be a good deal until I ran into some dip$#&@ professors. I took the counseling and guidance option instead and that was 20 yrs ago.

I cherry-picked some business and accounting courses that enabled me to do an IT management job that typically requires a four-year degree. That well-rounded education they push is nothing but expensive fluff designed to employ inferior teachers.

Hey, Beaver Boy - - there's nothing to re-think. The answer is to stop stealing money from taxpayers - - and handing it over to the commies running the schools. Get all of government - - at all levels - - out of education. No more government owned, operated, or subsidized schools! EVER!

What is needed is for a complete removal from power for every one in education who promote evil abominations, and never allowed back into anything educational. Then put shop classes teaching skilled work trades back into high school after giving all students and aptitude test to see what they are qualified by further individual skills tests to maybe learn enough to get a decent paying skilled job. Our main problem is paying people to do nothing with no effort to improve themselves in a working society to hold down a job. Remember people are born lazy and must be taught a good work ethic for a productive and happy life.

My experience with Higher Education, back when it still Nearly qualified for the term, was a trend of Party Hearty, instead of Hard Work. Entertainment trumped study. Only when things could literally not be ignored, did any disciplinary action occur. Example: one of the fraternities had been having regular underage alcohol binges for years, culminating with their frat house being condemned. They had filled the basement with crushed beer cans up to the bottoms of the main floor support joists, and rats were surfing through the debris. Example: members of the football team took a junket across State lines and got themselves arrested for rape. It still took them being convicted to be suspended from the team and even later to be expelled. These same thugs caused thousands of dollars in damage while they were on campus, including smashing a security car nearly flat, with sledgehammer. The damage was assessed to all students' dorm deposits as the perpetrators could not be identified. Except they WERE identified, and it took a lawsuit to make it stick. This was in the mid to late 70s. It was another standing joke that to get passed to seminary, the religion students had to pass muster on Marxism as a positive Force in the church.

Having modernized indoctrination centers does come with a price. Take a walk around a major college here when you get a chance and you will see very expensive-looking education halls, student activity centers, and residence halls complete with all the bells and whistles. Is this lavish architecture really necessary? In comparison, when I traveled to India on business before I retired, I spent many weeks at the Indian School of Mines in Dhanbad. Many of the classrooms are very very old, open air, old musty desks that wouldn't see for a dime at a garage sale, and chalkboards that were ready to fall off the walls. Internet, wi fi, and flat panel tv screens in the classroom? You must be joking. Yet, the students graduating from ISM are regarded worldwide as some of the best and brightest. Why? Because the faculty are. By the way, the students are taught in the English language.

The parents have to accept some of the blame for letting little Susie or Bilyl spend four, five, or six years towards a degree in gender studies, black studies, early African history or some other useless course of study. They spend more time protesting, being triggered by micro aggressions, seeking safe spaces, or whatever. All they are good for is being a barista at Starbucks. Tuitions are way out of line with the real world. They got to be where they are because of guaranteed payback of loans, so why not squeeze out more money from the system. And what do they do with the money? They erect new building, Olympic swimming pools, and hire fifteen diversity, equity, and inclusion administrators. Then they have the nerve to come begging to alumni for more money! Start taxing these endowments and stop giving tax dollars to these universities for any purpose. That’s how you bring them back to earth.

Vocational tech is the answer. There will always be a need for plumbers, electricians, mechanics, hair stylists….. Specialists in gender, equity, race, etc. not so much.

A university is supposed to be a 'universe of knowledge.' And it should exist for only those who have the capacity ti handle a universe of knowledge. (W.E.B. DuBois, in talking about black leadership, coined the term 'Talented Tenth. It applies to every race, in my opinion.) At the time I was born, 1939, few Americans went to college. (The label 'college' is rapidly disappearing. The smallest schools that were named college, have become 'university' because computer search engines excluded colleges from a potential student's search.) And back in 1939, until about 1960 or so, no matter what a person majored in, there were 'distribution' requirements. Math, History, Music, Philosophy, Latin, Foreign Languages, Science, were all required. Currently, one can wend one's way through the university avoiding those subjects. In place of those traditional areas, most universities have served up mush in the form of 'liberal studies' courses. The concept of 'universe of knowledge' has gone the way of buggy whips.

Higher education is an industry. It will sell you a credential or degree in a heartbeat, for a price. Those attending, especially those who were marginal students, are there to score a "good job", perhaps thinking being a barista is a good job. Schools generally have no standards for entry, few for graduation - just 120 assorted credits and fees paid up. In some schools, to help those "disadvantaged", schools will count "remedial" credits toward graduation. And the suckers keep coming. Apprenticeships aren't all that, either. It's four years of application beyond the ken of many of today's youths. For example, wastewater treatment plants nationwide cannot find licensed operators. They offer "apprenticeships", while community colleges commonly offer two-year programs. Why no licensed operators? Let's start with math and chemistry proficiency. Who wants to take those courses? They're "hard". So is learning any trade, not to mention involving distasteful working conditions. The first missing ingredient is "ambition"...hey, did you see my scores on Madden?

The thing is for a lot of those wanting to go into the medical fields, college is the only way to get certification/qualifications higher than a technician or nurse. My daughter is majoring in animal science because she wants to work with animals, but the pathways for certification have been relegated either to a junior college which only handles up to a Vet Tech or RN level of education or to a four year college. More doors supposedly open with the four year degree but even then, I worry the college will fail to provide her the ability to job openings. Unless she decides to go on to get her DVM at a higher level of college, there seems to be little the college does to provide a pathway for employment. What I want to know is why the colleges are working with corporations to set up internships for a student to utilize the degree theyve been working on. THAT's what should be happening between academia and the Real World. It seems only the technical colleges have grasped that necessity. THATS what should have been taking place all this time...and its what everyone has ASSUMED will happen, but the minute they give you a degree, they move on and don't use the money they get to help the student get employment. If they arent going to do that, then colleges need to be shut down.

BAAAAAGH! Perview is my fiend... I meant to say "why the colleges ARE NOT..."

College is a waste of time and money for about half of the people, or more. The Commie indoctrination makes it harmful to all.