Thanks for the correction. Itâs been awhile. Graduated 51 years ago. Sheesh!
The reason our students were leaving at such an alarming rate, up to 60 percent the freshmen year,
wasnât that they wouldnât work but that they could only write their name. The first exam
would come back with the just the studentâs name on it. Nobody had ever taught
them anything. I donât know the stats for ensuing years but we continued to
lose large numbers. We did try to save them, lots of remedial teaching, but
it didnât work.
Meanwhile the graduating seniors in education of a local university took a teacher competency
test. All 16 failed. The NAACP said the test was racially biased against African Americans,
so the local paper printed it on
the front page. It consisted in paragraphs about, say, the French revolution, followed
by multiple choice questions about what the paragraph had said. Anybody who could read
at a high school level could answer the questions. The students graduated
anyway (the test wasnât part of the program) and went to teach in local
schools. Their writing was likely to be worse than their reading.
Once in there is no getting them out cause the unions wonât allow
testing of teachers.
This wasnât as much a âsink or swimâ scenario as a tragedy pure and simple.
I think students in the UK and generally in Europe are streamed into vocational
and university tracks. In the USA everybody goes to university. The result
is very bad indeed for universities that arenât sufficiently well-endowed
to be able to afford to turn away students who canât do university
level work. Requirements are eliminated, standards drop,
exams are all multiple choice with the right answer telegraphed,
teachers tell students there is no need to come to class.
People leave the university writing less well than
when they entered. But the university collects
their tuition.
Many students work full time jobs to pay tuition to a university
that isnât educating them, not knowing that they
arenât getting educated. There is a large system
of junior colleges (two year colleges) which teach
almost nothing.
Generally when everybody goes into some institution that means to educate them
or improve them, it drags down the institution more than it uplifts them.
In Thailand most young men become monks for a year or two.
Just what everyone does. About the worst thing that could
have happened to monasticism. Monks smoking cigarettes,
monks with ghetto blasters, monks consorting with
prostitutesâŚ
Higher Education in the USA can be extraordinarily good,
but also it can be just very sad.
so the last decade has been rough?