Axia college
There was once a farmer who noticed that he could buy bags of sawdust for far less than bags of feed, and this observation led him to an idea. He would mix a little sawdust into his bags of feed and therefore save money and feeding his livestock. He began by mixing a little sawdust in, and then a little more, until finally, one week, he was feeding his cows nothing but sawdust. He then went to a neighboring farm to brag about his brilliant idea and he brought the farmer there back to his farm to show him how he had implemented the plan.
When the two farmers returned to see how things were working out, they found all the cattle dead.
My mother used to tell me this story...I can't for the life of me remember why, but it seems extraordinarily applicable to the state of education in our country. Our idea of the importance of education, like the farmer's ideas about the importance of feeding his cows, is such that we feel that we can slip in a bit of sawdust into the mix without doing harm. Well, the cow has died.
Try to understand. Disciplines such as Art, English, Philosophy, History, Political Science, what might be termed the humanities has ceased to be recognized in our country as worthy of study. It is simply assumed that these disciplines have nothing to teach the average person. Their subjects of study seem trivial at best.
Of course, this is being said by people who have never studied any of the humanities, and it might be added that in their ignorance they have no idea what they are missing out on, namely critical thinking. But the need to think critically is not assumed to be of any importance. The ability to spot flaws in our president's rhetoric, for instance, is little more than a parlor trick. Christians instructed in the idea of "love thy neighbor" actively support war; they do not recognize the paradox--they cannot. They are dim-witted in the absence of any sort of education beyond the job they are expected to do. They criticize those who read Chaucer, because expending the effort to read Chaucer is seen as a waste. Conversely, spending hours and hours a day watching Survivor is socially acceptable. We have created a culture, by de-valuing the humanities, that is comfortable being idiots--that feel they have the right to openly mock those who are smarter than they are. Why shouldn't they; they are all but invited to celebrate their mediocrity.
Case in point, I recently turned down a job with AXIA online college. I'd like to explain why. The company runs internet classrooms and pays their instructors $1235 per 9 week class. During those 9 weeks, instructors are expected to grade 4 papers, run the classroom itself, and be available from 4-8 M-the, and 5-9 on Sundays. I asked everyone I could if this meant I would have to be on my computer 20 hours a week. I was told that, no, it did not mean I had to be on my computer, I simply had to be available to answer my student's e-mails. Note that there is no difference between these two terms.
Let's do some math. Being on your computer 20 hours a week for 9 weeks means 180 hours of work. Add to this about 10 hours of grading papers per paper assignment, or 40 hours and we are at 220 hours for $1235. Everybody get your pencils ready for division.
That means that Axia expects instructors to teach English for $5.61 an hour--a little less than you could make working at McDonald's.
Just a thought, but maybe the creation of people capable of thought might be something worthy of our admiration. Oh, I know I'm biased on this, but all too often I hear people complain about how stupid they think everyone is. Well, yeah. No one's teaching anybody to think any harder. In fact, people are punished for thinking harder. Classes in deep thinking are being run out by the sawdust of classes in memorization and job apprenticeship.
I think it is all too easy to blame Axia for their insult on education that is their hiring salary, but unfortunately, I cannot lay that blame on their institution. They are, of course, opportunists, but they did not create the opportunity. What Axia does is prey on desperate instructors. If the system was working well, if our values were in the right place, there wouldn't be any desperate instructors for Axia to hire. The job opportunities for people trained in teaching people to think are as slim as the market for people who have proven that they are capable of deep thought. If it weren't, Axia would have long ago gone out of business.
When the two farmers returned to see how things were working out, they found all the cattle dead.
My mother used to tell me this story...I can't for the life of me remember why, but it seems extraordinarily applicable to the state of education in our country. Our idea of the importance of education, like the farmer's ideas about the importance of feeding his cows, is such that we feel that we can slip in a bit of sawdust into the mix without doing harm. Well, the cow has died.
Try to understand. Disciplines such as Art, English, Philosophy, History, Political Science, what might be termed the humanities has ceased to be recognized in our country as worthy of study. It is simply assumed that these disciplines have nothing to teach the average person. Their subjects of study seem trivial at best.
Of course, this is being said by people who have never studied any of the humanities, and it might be added that in their ignorance they have no idea what they are missing out on, namely critical thinking. But the need to think critically is not assumed to be of any importance. The ability to spot flaws in our president's rhetoric, for instance, is little more than a parlor trick. Christians instructed in the idea of "love thy neighbor" actively support war; they do not recognize the paradox--they cannot. They are dim-witted in the absence of any sort of education beyond the job they are expected to do. They criticize those who read Chaucer, because expending the effort to read Chaucer is seen as a waste. Conversely, spending hours and hours a day watching Survivor is socially acceptable. We have created a culture, by de-valuing the humanities, that is comfortable being idiots--that feel they have the right to openly mock those who are smarter than they are. Why shouldn't they; they are all but invited to celebrate their mediocrity.
Case in point, I recently turned down a job with AXIA online college. I'd like to explain why. The company runs internet classrooms and pays their instructors $1235 per 9 week class. During those 9 weeks, instructors are expected to grade 4 papers, run the classroom itself, and be available from 4-8 M-the, and 5-9 on Sundays. I asked everyone I could if this meant I would have to be on my computer 20 hours a week. I was told that, no, it did not mean I had to be on my computer, I simply had to be available to answer my student's e-mails. Note that there is no difference between these two terms.
Let's do some math. Being on your computer 20 hours a week for 9 weeks means 180 hours of work. Add to this about 10 hours of grading papers per paper assignment, or 40 hours and we are at 220 hours for $1235. Everybody get your pencils ready for division.
That means that Axia expects instructors to teach English for $5.61 an hour--a little less than you could make working at McDonald's.
Just a thought, but maybe the creation of people capable of thought might be something worthy of our admiration. Oh, I know I'm biased on this, but all too often I hear people complain about how stupid they think everyone is. Well, yeah. No one's teaching anybody to think any harder. In fact, people are punished for thinking harder. Classes in deep thinking are being run out by the sawdust of classes in memorization and job apprenticeship.
I think it is all too easy to blame Axia for their insult on education that is their hiring salary, but unfortunately, I cannot lay that blame on their institution. They are, of course, opportunists, but they did not create the opportunity. What Axia does is prey on desperate instructors. If the system was working well, if our values were in the right place, there wouldn't be any desperate instructors for Axia to hire. The job opportunities for people trained in teaching people to think are as slim as the market for people who have proven that they are capable of deep thought. If it weren't, Axia would have long ago gone out of business.