I teach at a fairly prestigious college. Considering the various scholarships and grants, I'd say the average student pays about $20K of the $40K tuition. Some pay more, others pay less.
Spend enough time in these factories and you start to notice a lot of money going to various nonsense majors and endless "
Up With People" activities designed to keep students from thinking.
My students appear to be constantly distracted. Perhaps this comes from trying to figure out how not to offend that new girl with your BO due to the fact that your political "science" prof has you pretending to be homeless for the week. To what end? Are you not capable of having compassion without stinking up my studio?
This all seems to begin in high school. I have nieces who are on a swim team, who practice almost every day at the crack of dawn. When did this mutually assured destruction-style approach to school sports begin? Is it really worth it, and what is it keeping you from doing?
As a man who believes in the very real spiritual battle around us (unwisely dismissed by most churches), it seems to me that this is a perfect trick played on us by the evil one, the ignoring of the best through the pursuit of the good.
One of my favorite commentators,
Fred Reed, said it best:
To the extent that universities actually try to teach anything, which is to say to a very limited extent, they do little more than inhibit intelligent students of inquiring mind. And they are unnecessary: The professor’s role is purely disciplinary: By threats of issuing failing grades, he ensures that the student comes to class and reads certain things. But a student who has to be forced to learn should not be in school in the first place. By making a chore of what would otherwise be a pleasure, the professor instills a lifelong loathing of study.
The truth is that universities positively discourage learning. Think about it. Suppose you wanted to learn Twain. A fruitful approach might be to read Twain. The man wrote to be read, not analyzed tediously and inaccurately by begowned twits. It might help to read a life of Twain. All of this the student could do, happily, even joyously, sitting under a tree of an afternoon. This, I promise, is what Twain had in mind.
Grad schools are even worse. I recommend Mark Taylor's
Doctors of Miseducation for clear thinking on that one.
I have been encouraging music students who really wish to perform to use an apprentice model and avoid grad school altogether. Imagine not having any loans to repay, studying with whoever you would like and not slaving away in some student ensemble when you ought to be practicing.
The current economic downturn (depression) could save our schools by making the nonsense unaffordable. I look forward to cleansing our campuses as we make "tough" decisions about whether Vocational Reflection is needed when you already have a career center.
