Sadly, I have to agree with you. I finished both of my BS degrees
in the 70's, and I was lucky enough to do so in a place where I interacted
with professors far more than with TA's. And where at least some of
classes I took were about intellectual challenge and understanding, not
about cramming X amount of data into one's head. Even by the time
I was a TA, I could see this changing; one of the most memorable comments
that one of my students ever made to me was "I don't want to know how
to do it, I just want to know the answer".
I think the explanation that I gave him didn't penetrate. And in
part, that's not his fault: he'd simply adapted to the system he
found himself in and was trying to take the shortest path to success.
Frankly, most universities and colleges these days are turning into
nothing more than trade schools to service the demands of industry
and commerce. It's quite possible for students to graduate without
(or nearly without) reading a sonnet, observing a chemical reaction,
understanding the difference between rhythm and meter, completing
a circuit...the list goes on.
The consequence of this is that we have an increasingly illiterate
society, where "illiterate" include categories like "mathematically",
"musically", and others. (And I point this comment as much at
myself as anyone else: I can tell a Picasso from a Pollock, but only
because I had a S.O. who took me to the Philadelphia Art Museum
on several occasions. I've often asked myself how the heck I was
allowed to get out of college without knowing that. And I actually
tried to diversify my coursework...not hard enough, obviously.)
So what? So we have a society full of people who can't participate
in decisions affecting their lives, because they don't understand
the mathematics involved in the risk analysis of a possible landfill.
A society that doesn't support the fine arts because they find them
inaccessible. A society that buys into health fads (today's trend:
dietary supplements) because they don't understand basic physiology.
A society subject to manipulation by demagogues/mass media/advertisers
because they haven't learned critical thinking skills.
We *all* pay the price for this.
I haven't got a clue how to fix it.
> my position is that institutional education has been
> devalued to a such point that a degree from the last 15-20 years primarily
> demonstrates endurance and the ability to conform.
That was my experience in graduate school, which is why I didn't
go off and finish a PhD. And having watched other people go through
it (including critiquing and typesetting a friend's dissertation)
I've seen little to change that impression. Ability to toe the
line and crank out papers is far more valued than actual original
research and new ideas.
---Rsk
Rich Kulawiec
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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