Weekend Sept 28 2014
Thsi is my weekly newspaper column which was published today.
A Few Thoughts on Education
Our last few columns have warned of falling oil prices as well as an impending top in the stock markets. Now on the 40th anniversary of the Fall, 1974 low in the Dow Industrials at 577, it appears our prediction is worthy of attention. All the major indexes are falling along with that reliable indicator of optimism, junk bond prices. We will address this in the next bi-weekly column on oil prices. Today we consider what may also be a coming bear market in Higher Education. Let’s connect the dots of these thoughts on Higher Ed.
‘Educators’ from K-12 through Higher Ed are now offering up technology as the latest cure all for an acknowledged failure to do what they are supposed to do-educate students. Entire school districts are spending hundreds of dollars each on tablets, laptops, clickers, projectors, and all manner of gizmos. These are not however new techniques in learning. These are new delivery systems. A papyrus scroll, a printed book, a televised lecture, or an article on a laptop deliver information, It is simply that the delivery systems have become more and more expensive and complex.
Which brings us to a curious paradox. On the one hand, educators have declared on-line learning to somehow be an improved delivery system. The alleged advantage is that one does not have to be physically present in the classroom. This flies in the face of considerable evidence and academic studies indicating that 50% of communication is non-verbal. Eye movements, facial expressions, and body language all convey a level of understanding-or not. At the same time most public and private institutions sport construction cranes across the campus. New buildings are on the rise even as the cry of on-line success is trumpeted. Well which is it, do we need more on-line or more ivy covered towers?
And by the way, with you can’t see me testing the instructor cannot know who is really taking the test or how many are simultaneously taking the test together,. Hidden from view, all tests become open book tests as there is not one to present to deny the use of any material. Is this a real test then of real learning? Or a who can look up the answer in the least amount of time test?
There is a demand from the President down to the Governors for more affordable Higher Ed. The $10,000 degree is being touted these days. I seriously suspect that in the next economic downturn, which may be starting now, we will se a reaction against the lavish construction of campuses since the March 2009 low of the financial crisis.
Educators, as always decry the decrease in funding from the state legislature. But the public will likely decry the construction of lavish buildings? Where is the affordable, functional structure without extravagance which would serve the purpose just as well?
Before the GI Bill of World War II, few people went to four years of college. There were trade schools, vocational schools, and business schools. One CPA I know described how his uncle attended a business school in the 1920s. He completed the work in about nine months. Upon completion he had a trunk with all his homework. The school had him perform every known accounting entry. He was prepared to be a company accountant.
I suspect we may need to re-visit that sort of focused approach. Educators would have us believe that a well-rounded education included literature study, art appreciation, and such is a necessary component of, well, an educated person. I agree and even more so as I have grown older. The problem is that there is no evidence students learn any of that in their first two years of college. As an anecdotal example only one student in two of my classes could identify the origin of the phrase, It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. We may have liberal arts requirements but there are few to no liberal arts outcomes.
My take is that the problem in education is one of motivation. Unless the students I properly paired with what he or she wants to study, nothing is going to come of the effort. And so would be airplane mechanics need to be doing just that, accountants need to be studying accounting, and so on.
How about dispensing with the re-hash of high school, civics, basic science, and history for the first two years. This is already happening with dual credit classes in high school. Law school once only lasted two years. A few decades back Architect and CPA certification did not require a college degree. There is no real evidence that another two years of ‘education’ outside of their fields results in better engineers or speech therapists.
I suggest we re-think the requirements, and get, yes, back to the future of education.
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