People have been saying that for years
I don't like the logic. I really don't. No offense Intaki, I get where you're coming from. I've heard this saying for awhile, but you know what? It doesn't work.
For instance, people have been saying that the environment is going sour for years. Yes, because the process was gradual and accelarating. Now, we face a disaster of global proportion. The problem with people is that we think in terms of years, not decades, not centuries. So, if something doesn't go belly up a year from the time we hear the complaint we think that the complaint is unfounded. We don't get the idea that someone is seeing the early, early middle, middle, late middle, and late stage warning signs. Hell, they were telling us that we were running out of oil when I was in grade school more than two decades ago, but back then it was reactionary panic. Ahem...
People have been saying the government was corrupt for years. Maybe even since it began. Yeah, and now we have family dynasties of presidents, wire tapping on our home phone, legalized torture, and wars waged to promote a family's business. People have been saying it for years because it was bad and has been getting worse. Here's a better saying: people have been ignoring it for years.
Now, Intaki. Education. My teachers, the ones who are retiring, read Chaucer in High School. Math is now abysmal. I asked my class to figure out what 80% of 10 was and they couldn't do it. Only one person in the class (mostly made up of business and Education majors of course) could figure it out. Out of 16 papers of 3 pages in length that I was supposed to collect last class meeting, I received 11. Only 2 met the MINIMUM 3 page requirement. People have been saying for years that education in this country has been going downhill. Here's why: because it has.
Now, we have tests to determine whether these kids know enough to graduate high school and they're failing in numbers that baffle the mind. How bad was the education before someone started checking? This isn't arbitrary. It isn't a coincidence that the year they started checking just happened to be the year that all the idiots were trying to graduate.
What's more, they train these kids from first grade up to pass this test and they still can't pass. It's amazing. I can't even begin to fathom the depths to which our education system has sunk in order for that last statement to be true. Now I read essay after essay that says we expect too much when we expect kids in high school calculus to pass a test on rudimentary Algebra. Forget about English. They learn to write a five paragraph essay and they have no idea why it works or how to improve it.
Let's be frank about this. What people have been saying for years turns out to be true. All that crap that they've been saying about the corruption of the American way of life. True. Don't get me wrong, I love America, but eventually, these systems that people have claimed to be broken...eventually, they break. Turns out you shouldn't trust your health to a corporation. Turns out that a pharmaceutical company does not make your health its top priority. It turns out the the world is headed for an environmental crisis. It turns out that the housing market is overinflated. It turns out that starving countries do become more warlike. It turns out that a strong military isn't much of a replacement for a failing manufacturing economy. These are things that people have been saying for years; these are truths we are now seeing manifest.
Now, I don't want this to be negative. Here's the thing: you don't fix things when they're breaking; you fix them when they're broke. Well, now these things are broke and now they will be fixed. We aught to look at our time as an era of repair. But what will we need to do these repairs. Here's the upshot--we're going to need all those things that they've been saying for years have been on the decline: hope, kindness, decency to one another. We're going to have to think in the long term. We're going to have to learn to prize our success as a community, as a nation, and as a people as more important than the all mighty dollar. We're going to have to learn to see the value of things like art and the humanities, but also in things as simple as helping each other out. We're going to learn to think in terms of what we can do rather than what we can say.
I firmly believe this. I believe that the only way that we're going to get past the world's hardships is by embracing values that went out of style forty or fifty years ago. They'll have to be revamped no doubt, but simply WILL change, not must, not needs to, but will. I think that, too, is something that people have been saying for years. Hopefully now we're listening.
For instance, people have been saying that the environment is going sour for years. Yes, because the process was gradual and accelarating. Now, we face a disaster of global proportion. The problem with people is that we think in terms of years, not decades, not centuries. So, if something doesn't go belly up a year from the time we hear the complaint we think that the complaint is unfounded. We don't get the idea that someone is seeing the early, early middle, middle, late middle, and late stage warning signs. Hell, they were telling us that we were running out of oil when I was in grade school more than two decades ago, but back then it was reactionary panic. Ahem...
People have been saying the government was corrupt for years. Maybe even since it began. Yeah, and now we have family dynasties of presidents, wire tapping on our home phone, legalized torture, and wars waged to promote a family's business. People have been saying it for years because it was bad and has been getting worse. Here's a better saying: people have been ignoring it for years.
Now, Intaki. Education. My teachers, the ones who are retiring, read Chaucer in High School. Math is now abysmal. I asked my class to figure out what 80% of 10 was and they couldn't do it. Only one person in the class (mostly made up of business and Education majors of course) could figure it out. Out of 16 papers of 3 pages in length that I was supposed to collect last class meeting, I received 11. Only 2 met the MINIMUM 3 page requirement. People have been saying for years that education in this country has been going downhill. Here's why: because it has.
Now, we have tests to determine whether these kids know enough to graduate high school and they're failing in numbers that baffle the mind. How bad was the education before someone started checking? This isn't arbitrary. It isn't a coincidence that the year they started checking just happened to be the year that all the idiots were trying to graduate.
What's more, they train these kids from first grade up to pass this test and they still can't pass. It's amazing. I can't even begin to fathom the depths to which our education system has sunk in order for that last statement to be true. Now I read essay after essay that says we expect too much when we expect kids in high school calculus to pass a test on rudimentary Algebra. Forget about English. They learn to write a five paragraph essay and they have no idea why it works or how to improve it.
Let's be frank about this. What people have been saying for years turns out to be true. All that crap that they've been saying about the corruption of the American way of life. True. Don't get me wrong, I love America, but eventually, these systems that people have claimed to be broken...eventually, they break. Turns out you shouldn't trust your health to a corporation. Turns out that a pharmaceutical company does not make your health its top priority. It turns out the the world is headed for an environmental crisis. It turns out that the housing market is overinflated. It turns out that starving countries do become more warlike. It turns out that a strong military isn't much of a replacement for a failing manufacturing economy. These are things that people have been saying for years; these are truths we are now seeing manifest.
Now, I don't want this to be negative. Here's the thing: you don't fix things when they're breaking; you fix them when they're broke. Well, now these things are broke and now they will be fixed. We aught to look at our time as an era of repair. But what will we need to do these repairs. Here's the upshot--we're going to need all those things that they've been saying for years have been on the decline: hope, kindness, decency to one another. We're going to have to think in the long term. We're going to have to learn to prize our success as a community, as a nation, and as a people as more important than the all mighty dollar. We're going to have to learn to see the value of things like art and the humanities, but also in things as simple as helping each other out. We're going to learn to think in terms of what we can do rather than what we can say.
I firmly believe this. I believe that the only way that we're going to get past the world's hardships is by embracing values that went out of style forty or fifty years ago. They'll have to be revamped no doubt, but simply WILL change, not must, not needs to, but will. I think that, too, is something that people have been saying for years. Hopefully now we're listening.
posted by Monstro D. Whale | 9:21 AM
10 Comments:
Well, part of it is statistics --(i.e., U.S. population). A generation ago, a bachelor's degree was considerably less common than it is today. But, because of the population explosion, you now have at least an order of magnitude more matriculating college students in the country. Sure, some of them will be screw-offs, a fact of life since at least Animal House.
And so you have *more* lesser able kids in the world now who have nothing much to do after high school. So, why not college?
Naturally, this gives rise to the fact that some schools are more academically competitive than others. (I sure the hell hope any Harvard comp teacher in your situation would not only receive all 16 papers back, but they'd all demonstrate excellence. Okay, well maybe 15 of them. Or, am I naively deluded?)
Sure, things have generally progressively worsened a little... That's why I think college is the new high school, you know? And, I think that's true regardless of whether the kids (or the parents or whatever other funding sources) are paying to put butts in seats there. It's a given nowadays; kids hit college after high school.
But are colleges and universities actually gradating these knuckleheads? That I don't know. (Maybe you do?) In other words, have the standards for bachelor-level graduation really lessened measurably over the years as well?
I had a cousin like that, btw -- couldn't tell you what 99% of 100 is. He made it through two years, then transferred to chef school (a skill at which he also, judging from his later career, sucked).
Also, if you take a look at the hiring market for upper-level positions, you'll notice more emphasis not only on the degree earned, but from what school it was granted. Law firms and management companies, for example, actively seek degreed kids from "top-tier" schools. That University of Phoenix Online MBA doesn't seem to open as many doors as a Wharton MBA. (Not to disparage UoP, as I'm a fan of distance learning.)
I'm rambling a bit here -- trying to type and work at the same time... but back to my population hypothesis: I still believe there are vast numbers of thinking kids in the country. I'm highly optimistic at heart, really -- even though I enjoy being obnoxious online most of the time. I don't think we're going to hell in a handbasket. Despite any declines, just look at the myriad technological innovations since the previous generation. If this is to be an era of repair, these are the minds that will rise to the challenge.
This is a recurring theme on your blog & seems to be a source of considerable stress. I think you need to teach somewhere else, or teach higher-level students, or possibly go into politics? What's in store for Monstro D. Whale's future academic career?
The "considerable stress" to which you refer is I think a function of being a teacher who cares. Goes with the territory I'm afraid.
It also happens to be the function of someone who is not doing the job to which they are preparing to do. I'm studying to teach American Literature, but those jobs require a Ph.D.. So, while you're earning your Ph.D., you have to do the grunt work. Simple as that.
In only the short time I've been doing the grunt work (full time, pretty much for about 8 years), I have seen standards drop lower and lower. What used to be the minimum I would see teaching this same class in Junior college now seems to be about par for the course in my univeristy which is, I think in the 50-60 range whenever they look at top schools in the nation. Second tier, but geez.
In any case, if you don't stress over your students, chances are you're not doing a very good job teaching them anything. So, I'm torn. I'd stress less over my students if I were teaching the level I will be teaching once I reach the Ph.D. level, but then that will only be because I won't be in contact with the students I'm currently talking about. They'll still be out there, in droves. I just won't have to talk to them.
Politics? Not a chance. Hell they could use this blog against me. The goal, BSUWG, is to write the novel. That's always the goal.
"The goal, BSUWG, is to write the novel."
-- and maybe not just "the novel," but "THE novel." Me too, btw.
BTW, I'd forgotten to take the part about caring for one's job into consideration. Please forgive that oversight. It stems from a long stint in the oftentimes miasmic corporate machine. Perhaps CA will soften me up a bit.
Well, California probably will soften you a bit but...
Keep in mind, though it sounds like I am an old crotchety professor who is jaded and hated by his students, I do in fact see the possibilities for these people if they'd only stop being so lazy and self satisfied.
At the same time, you should read my student evaluations. I'm a harsh grader and I'm still beloved. I'm not kidding. Even the kids who I think are lazy and who know that I think are lazy still give me the kinds of teacher evals you'd expect Robin Williams to get in Dead Poets society. One of my students, an English major, cited me as the best professor he's had in his scholastic career. That's me up against the rest of the tenured faculty in the department.
I'm just a bit bitter right now because 7 people in a 16 person class are flunking for sheer laziness.
But then, they're a bit older than the 18 year olds who are fresh out of high school so maybe I'm aiming at the wrong people.
I agree with both of you here. Good points were made.
I do not think that Harvard necessarily has a higher grade of person than any other college.
However, I do think that they aim their sights at getting achievers; motivated and professional students that know how to learn.
Unfortunately, these motivated professional students are not likely to be the next Einstein.
They are good at what they do, which is school. Also, I'd imagine that tuition would be prohibitive to any student who doesn't have scholarships.
So, elitism? Absolutely, which is why their degree is valued.
Excellence of thought? Not necessarily. Excellence of process is more like it.
Those are the students who prove that they can exist in the corporate/political machine.
I don't konw so much about knocking Harvard. Yeah, you're probably right--they've learned the process. But you know what? Most students haven't. Try teaching to a room full of people who essentially know what to do versus a group of people who've still got it in their heads that if they act dumb enough you'll give the assignment to someone else or if they act lazy enough you'll be happy to let them complete the entire class in a 48 hour period. Don't knock process.
The Drivler used to teach at UNC Chapel Hill, top public college in the nation, and we'd compare students. According to him, his students knew exactly what to do. They also knew exactly how to figure out what to write, how to write it, who to go to for help, etc.. Perfect. Of course, if you gave them a B+ you had to talk to their parents and their parents' lawyer. People didn't have to do that 20 years ago so my point's still valid.
As for Harvard. There are plenty of school's of priviliage. I live five miles from a trust fund school. For Harvard, you have to be smart, rich, have a good family, and you also have to have done a great deal of worldly work. Starving kids in Africa is a plus. All those things must come together. Harvard can pick.
A friend of mine went to Harvard. He attests to the general quality of the student. But he and I are about evenly matched when it comes to literature (I might even have the edge), and I graduated from the #2 party school in the nation.
I think if companies are now hiring from the "best" schools, they're already conceding the points I'm making. College has been corrupted; hopefully, the best colleges haven't. They'll figure out the error of that kind of thinking soon enough I'd imagine
A good quality student is by no means a good quality person, and vice versa.
Additionally, there are plenty of good quality students and persons who cannot afford to continue their education.
I'd say the European nations have it right where that is concerned. At least, the ones, like Denmark, where tuition is paid for by taxes.
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Sorry. Here's my real comment. I have a blogspot page but haven't posted comments on one before so I kind of fucked it up at first.
Like your post. I got here because I had a case of writer's blues and googled that and got to your blog of august 2007 where you talk about that topic. I can identify with much you said there.
BTW: I'm also a Pynchon fan (though haven't read the last two books) and though I'm not into Warhammer I do build quite a lot of WWII plastic model kits.
Cheers,
Roxy Katt
Pornographer and Cultural Bolshevik
roxykatt.com
roxykatt.blogspot.com
The problem with our current education system I feel is threefold. We have parents who don't care. Children who don't care. Coupled with teachers who don't care.
As the parents are not in the education system and free individuals, I don't think there is much we can do with them. The children can be "fixed" with a three strike rule. After three infractions of any sort, throw them out of school for the year. If they get thrown out again, remove them from public education forever. Don't let them stand in the way of those who want to learn, it simply is not fair or just.
The teachers I feel we can help along the most. For far too long public school teachers have been insulated form the real world. With their unions protecting them, the profession has become a haven for the lazy and unmotivated. When a Roman legion retreated, the ranks would be decimated (one in ten would have to stand foward and be killed). We could decimate the ranks of the teachers each and every year. Fire the ones who don't show competency, and get new ones in there. This would instill a healthy sense of competition for survival, which could only be good for the education of this Republic. Of course the unions would have to be made illegal too.
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