Michael Ofsowitz stated:
>If students know the types of attitudes that teachers prefer students
>to have in the classroom, why don't they exhibit these? Why can they
>afford to discount the teachers' expectations of student attitudes
>towards education?
He answered his own question by stating:
>And I'll also guess that one of the answers is that the corporate world
>that plays such a central role in our culture and society has a helluva
>greater influence on them than we do.
I think that this is the correct answer: we live in a "corporate culture"
that emphasizes material comforts and status based on the accumulation of
those material items. Appearance is more important than substance, although
the latter is not unimportant for many. Anything that contributes to the
attainment of that status and/or those goods is most valued. Michael suggested
that we emphasize how valuable our classes can be for these "corporate-
sponsored" values:
>The only solution I can imagine - other than appeasement - is to work on
>something that will help convince some of them at least that our attitude
>towards education ... is more valuable to the corporate world than is their
>mostly immediate-utilitarian attitude. Of course, this assumes that our
>attitude IS valuable to the corporate world (and not just to the republic
>or their family lives or the communities they live in or this entire remote
>tiny solar system and so on).
We are experiencing a "cultural juggernaut" (a blind devotion to the pursuit of
money and material goods--a devotion, however, that leads to various amounts
of sacrifice). Even the administrations and governing bodies of our various
colleges and universities have succumbed to it. I suppose that I have always
tried to fight this juggernaut: it leaves me cold and empty (but I still do
love my big-screen TV). That is why I always tried to learn as much as I could
about the universe: this gave me the satisfactions that I could get from almost
nowhere else.
And I think it leaves many students cold and empty. I think that many/most of
them also have other non-corporate-sponsored motives that can be satisfied
by the goals of a traditional liberal-arts education. This is why I don't try
to
prove to my students that my courses will make them a more "valuable
commodity" in the marketplace. Instead, I try to show them how personally
meaningful and interesting their educational experiences can be. There are
enough people in the administrations and in the "marketing departments" of
most postsecondary schools who are arguing the corporate line.
But this goal requires of me that I meet my students on their playing field:
most of them are very suspicious of my playing field. I need to show them with
examples from their own lives how a scientific view can help them to answer
important (or just plain interesting) questions that they have, regardless of
whether or not they will later be able to sell that knowledge for a higher
salary.
Still thinking out loud,
Jeff Ricker
Scottsdale Community College
Scottsdale AZ
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
