My department at Kennesaw
State University has already held its Christmas party. Last week, we shared our token gifts and
consumed our customarily sumptuous potluck lunch. Moreover, just as always, the intended
comradery materialized.
Finals too are almost over
and within days another cohort of students will graduate. For most of them, the pain of studying for
exams and writing term papers will be in the rear view mirror. For faculty, however, these painful rituals
will soon be repeated.
Many readers are aware of
the nonsense that has broken out on college campuses. They have seen pictures of students crying
because a favored political candidate lost.
They have heard about college administrators who provided therapy dogs
to ease undergraduate distress.
Talk about snowflakes and
cupcakes has become commonplace. The
current generation of students is depicted as so lacking in intestinal
fortitude that it is difficult to imagine them fulfilling adult
responsibilities. After all, if they are
too distraught to take exams, how will they put up with customer demands?
For many outside of academe,
these monkeyshines may seem to be a caricature.
How could so many college educated young adults be this juvenile? Aren’t they being instructed in the ways of
the world? Shouldn’t higher education prepare
people for social responsibilities?
My own undergraduate days
are over a half-century in the past.
They are therefore easy to romanticize.
In retrospect, I can conjure up visions of professors who were paragons
of scholastic virtue and fellow students who were dedicated scholars.
However, I know this was not
true. I remember the philosophy
professor who dozed off in class because he was going senile. I recall peers who were more concerned with
where the next party would be held than with completing a reading assignment.
That said, things have indeed
grown worse. Back in the day, college
admission was by merit; hence most applicants could not get in. It was assumed that superior intelligence and
effort were prerequisites. These were
regarded as necessary to master the required work.
Today, in contrast, college
is regarded as an entitlement. It is
thought of as a rite of passage that must be open to all. As a consequence, our classrooms are filled
with students who do not want to be there.
Their goal is to get a degree with as little exertion as possible and
then to get a high paying job.
Most of these students hate
to read. They will nod when told that
this is a vital skill, but crack a book only in case of emergency. Instead, they demand study guides so they can
commit a few mandatory facts to memory.
Better yet, they insist on obtaining copies of the professor’s notes.
Many students openly
acknowledge that they do not listen to classroom lectures because they are too
busy paying attention to Facebook on their laptops. As for term papers, they demand that these be
as short as possible. Even so, they cut
and paste them off the Internet.
Nor are college policies
helping to improve outcomes. The ever-greater
emphasis on on-line courses represents a capitulation to convenience over
scholarship. Despite all of the hype
about the virtues of computer-based education, those of us in the business know
this is a fraud.
The truth is that on-line
programs are generally less demanding.
This is why our least enthusiastic students prefer them. It is also why so many wind up with poor
grades because they refuse to submit those nasty term papers.
Let me be as clear as I
possibly can. Far too many college
students end up with a degree despite never absorbing college level
materials. They, and far too many
politicians, assume that this is making us a better-educated society. They are wrong!
Nor is this about to
change. Too many people are committed to
pretending things are getting better.
The only way that reforms will actually occur is if there is a
crisis. But this will not happen until
millions of undereducated graduates and hundreds of thousands of short-changed
employers become fed up with the status quo.
Melvyn L. Fein, Ph.D.
Professor of Sociology
Kennesaw State University
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