Colleges have adapted by expanding the range of courses and adding vocationally oriented majors. That’s appropriate. What’s not appropriate is keeping the bachelor’s degree as the measure of job preparedness, as the minimal requirement to get your foot in the door for vast numbers of jobs that don’t really require a B.A. or B.S.
I might agree with that, and I agree with half his description of the problem:
Many young people who have the intellectual ability to succeed in rigorous liberal arts courses don’t want to. For these students, the distribution requirements of the college degree do not open up new horizons. They are bothersome time-wasters.
But I strongly disagree with the other half of what he says about the problem:
It is a truth that politicians and educators cannot bring themselves to say out loud: A large majority of young people do not have the intellectual ability to do genuine college-level work.
2 comments:
I agree completely. The idea that most young people ``do not have the intellectual ability to do genuine college-level work'' is absurd. I believe the two primary reasons for poor performance is lack of preparation and lack of motivation: it is hard for a student to do well in calculus if they do not have a solid understanding of algebra; likewise, a student isn't likely to do well in a course they are forced to take to graduate but otherwise have no interest in.
The real point of education is not to prepare someone for a 'job' . White collar work employs college graduates not because they have a skill, but because they are educated in broader disciplines. Those broader disciplines are actually necessary to thrive in an economic climate such as we have... i.e. not based on labor or work but ideas, creativity and otherwise 'intellectual property'.
If a business wants a particular skill then they do actually find people trained for a vocation... CPA's are a good example. Either that or they outsource it because if the job can be codified or written down then it can be taught to anyone.
Post a Comment