Educational Shenanigans
Dean
Our friend Matt Rosenberg has a piece in the Jewish World Review that you might enjoy reading. It's a piece on what he sees as surreal and deteriorating educational standards in our nation's universities and k-12 schools: Educational Landscape by Dali.
It may or may not surprise you to know that I only agree with about 50% of what Rosenberg complains about. Although I'm quite sympathetic with the assertion that countless modern-day universities have descended into teaching trash and that the traditional liberal education is shockingly on the decline, in other areas I'm not so sure.
For example, educational conservatives seem to be big on increasing homework loads. But I happen to know people who as children almost never did their homework and turned out quite bright and well-educated. And I'm a well-known critic of traditional classroom learning anyway, since throughout most of my life I've found it a complete waste of my time.
Rosenberg also makes snarky reference to "ebonics," but ebonics is linguistically valid and studies have repeatedly shown that the best way to teach kids standard English is to have teachers who understand the informal vernacular the kids learn at home, so they can teach kids to compare and contrast that with standard English and learn the differences between them. Linguists have long known this to be true, and it's sad that still, politically, people become so angry at such a simple and scientifically valid approach to educating children more effectively in standard English.
Nevertheless, having been a full-time student for the last few years, I can say that I've been depressed at the level of silliness that seems to make its way into the modern education, how little emphasis there now seems to be on understanding the history and values of Western Civilization, and just how politically slanted so much of what's in our textbooks has become. So I'm not entirely unsympathetic with Matt's views.
I have a deep suspicion than 50 years hence, education is going to look radically different in this country than it does now, with more parents than ever either home schooling or sending to private schools. Indeed, I suspect that will come to be the majority of students.
Our colleges though--holy cow, what a mess. I don't even know what's going to happen there. It does seem like more people are getting college degrees than really need them, and an awful lot of undergrad degrees in particular are damn near worthless. I often think our universities need to tear everything up and start over from square one, but I'm not sure I see how that could happen.
It may or may not surprise you to know that I only agree with about 50% of what Rosenberg complains about. Although I'm quite sympathetic with the assertion that countless modern-day universities have descended into teaching trash and that the traditional liberal education is shockingly on the decline, in other areas I'm not so sure.
For example, educational conservatives seem to be big on increasing homework loads. But I happen to know people who as children almost never did their homework and turned out quite bright and well-educated. And I'm a well-known critic of traditional classroom learning anyway, since throughout most of my life I've found it a complete waste of my time.
Rosenberg also makes snarky reference to "ebonics," but ebonics is linguistically valid and studies have repeatedly shown that the best way to teach kids standard English is to have teachers who understand the informal vernacular the kids learn at home, so they can teach kids to compare and contrast that with standard English and learn the differences between them. Linguists have long known this to be true, and it's sad that still, politically, people become so angry at such a simple and scientifically valid approach to educating children more effectively in standard English.
Nevertheless, having been a full-time student for the last few years, I can say that I've been depressed at the level of silliness that seems to make its way into the modern education, how little emphasis there now seems to be on understanding the history and values of Western Civilization, and just how politically slanted so much of what's in our textbooks has become. So I'm not entirely unsympathetic with Matt's views.
I have a deep suspicion than 50 years hence, education is going to look radically different in this country than it does now, with more parents than ever either home schooling or sending to private schools. Indeed, I suspect that will come to be the majority of students.
Our colleges though--holy cow, what a mess. I don't even know what's going to happen there. It does seem like more people are getting college degrees than really need them, and an awful lot of undergrad degrees in particular are damn near worthless. I often think our universities need to tear everything up and start over from square one, but I'm not sure I see how that could happen.
As to the universities, they really do need to tear everything up and start over, including their assumptions about what their role in life is. The current model was built in a very different world, and it simply doesn't make any sense in the world of Google and industrial research (among other things).
I see the current university system as a "bubble", rather like an investment bubble. College tuition has been going up by double and triple the rate of inflation for some years now. It's to the point where just a normal, everyday, don't-know-much undergrad degree requires such a serious financial investment that, for many fields, it doesn't make sense to get one. But you can't get a job without one, because a high school grad is useless. But the job doesn't pay enough for the degree to make sense.... Vicious circle.
I think what will break this cycle is business. The only thing that keeps it going now is the fact that business uses the sheepskin as a "competency test". Everyday it becomes more expensive to get, and a poorer indicator of competence. I expect there to start to be a movement in American business towards examinations as proof of competence, rather than schooling. You're already seeing this in the public schools themselves, where a few years back the very idea was unthinkable. This idea will continue to spread.
What happens when an undergrad degree from an average school is $100k? $200k? $300k? Don't laugh, that's not that far off. If you're an employer, do *you* want to pay the salaries that these folks will need in order to pay their loans? Does a degreed employee, versus a "tested" one, really bring that much extra value?
If you're a parent, and you think you need to pay your kid's college expenses (a proposition I disagree with, but that's for another day), what are you going to do if you have more than one kid?
Eventually this is going to give. The current university system, given the trends of recent decades, is simply not economically viable in the long-term, imo. Put aside that, due to the corruption of post-modernist thought, they are also getting to where they are no longer intellectually viable (no institution that employs Noam Chomsky is intellectually viable). Eventually business will get tired of carrying the freight and they'll figure something else out for vetting employees. And universities as we know them will be over.
It would be a tough curriculum, but then engineering isn't an easy subject.
I have seven nieces and nephews who will be entering college in the next five years or so. My recommendation for each one of them will be the same: Study either a hard science, mathematics or engineering. If you're interested in the softer topics, take some electives, join a club [the college theater] and otherwise get involved in ways to satisfy those needs. But a hard science/math/ engineering will give you the methodological rigor necessary for a good education.
Ermmh, How would Bill Cosby, the comedian-actor who just happens to have a PHD in Education answer ?
"They're standing on the corner and they can't speak English," he said. "I can't even talk the way these people talk: 'Why you ain't.' 'Where you is.' ... And I blamed the kid until I heard the mother talk. And then I heard the father talk. ... Everybody knows it's important to speak English except these knuckleheads.....”
Being in the education arena, it is amazing to me to sit in a class wherein I am being told how to teach by those who do not practice what they teach.
Case in point: "It is vital to teach with a variety of methodologies and to different teaching styles" and then all the professor does is stand in the front of the room and lecture for 3 hours—without discussion, visuals, groups, etc. All the while ignoring 90% of his class either not getting, or not paying attention to his "every word."
I think in the educational system we have to start at the top and work down, tear down. It isn't that what works isn't known; it's that those that know it are not in a position to implement what works. They are blocked by tenured professors of old and administrators with money agendas that the status quo suits just fine, for them.
It is even recognized by the Modern Language Association (MLA) as a language. It has its own grammar, syntax, and punctuation. It has its own system of pronounciation that is not based on another language.
It has been recognized as a language since the mid 70's.
The primary benefits are that I can be assured that the kids are learning relevent material, and that their teachers aren't giving them a passing grade just to move them along on the assembly line. I've looked into the problem of college acceptance, and there are a number of ways to deal with the issue, including schools that will review your records, compare them to their own standards, and give the kid a diploma from thier school if the conditions are met.
The college questions that DSmith raises are also valid. I am under consideration for a position right now that would ordinarily require a post-graduate degree. However, the project manager was adamant that certifications and, more importantly, experience were to weigh higher than degrees, and that the educational requirement could be ignored completely for the right candidate. I think it won't be long before other companies realize that certification and practical experience are cheaper to obtain than a degree, and that they can therefore save a few bucks by hiring someone that doesn't have a heavy college loan to repay.
Not that I mind being paid at the same rate as someone trying to pay off their MBA ... }8-)
And I, too, think Degrees as a 'hoop' for employment are going to go away, and indeed, I yearn for the day when it's more important that I prove competency than that I have sat through enough useless bullcrap.
And I'm pretty sure Ebonics would be a dialect, not a language.
Nope, its not a dialect. Sorry. At least not in linguistic circles, anthropological circles, grammar circles, etc. Of course, you can argue anything you want, but the literal, accepted, prescribed, and descriptive definition of a language quantifies Ebonics.
A dialect is a regional variation of a language only, and ebonics is spoken worldwide, not just regionally, thus it does not qualify.
There are many dialects of ebonics, but all have a common linguistic foundation.
Of course we all lose our tempers now and then. Dean freely admits to being imperfect in this regard, which is why regulars to this establishment will generally be cut more slack than people who we don't know very well.
Still: behave like an adult, or go find somewhere else to play. Thanks.