The Bill for Enlightenment:
In typical ivory tower tunnel vision, the CS Monitor is reporting that college campuses are losing their intellectual rigor. Reasons range from the continued unfashionability of the “nerd” label to the growing perception that college is either a “beer and circus” partyfest or 4 years worth of pre-high-paying job training. Students also assert they have almost no time for the quiet self-reflection so omnipresent in college lore with the mad rush of classes, extra-curriculars, friends and part-time jobs.
For the most part, this article avoids the usual “kids these days” nonsense that middle-aged journalists like to sather around on slow news days. However it makes a glaring omission when it fails to mention that going to college in 2003 can be the eviqualent of buying a Honda Civic every six months. Tuition is an enormous burden on middle-class families, many of whom have more than one kid in college at a time. Over half the students at most elite universities are on some form of financial aid. Never mind that the practice of licencing key services on campus to exclusive providers (At my alma mater, Barnes & Noble ran the campus bookstore) creates what amounts to a debt bondage economy with students.
Given these conditions, which most unviersities are full partners in creating, is it any wonder that say a Yale student (annual tuition $27,130) isn’t spending their four years debating the essays of Montaigne but is looking toward getting a high paying job to begin paying off their debt?
If universities are truly worried about the level of intellectual discourse on their campuses, perhaps they should make them a place where more than simply the richest students have the luxury of partaking in it. (via Cup of Chica).
Reader interactions
6 Replies to “The Bill for Enlightenment:”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Hmm… It’s funny cause at the University (www.fairfield.edu) I work at there’s a mix of really rich kids and middle class kids and it seems to me that the kids with the less money are the ones who work the hardest for the grades cause their parents don’t put up with any BS. The rich ones often coast through the classes because they’ve come to expect the high grades to be handed to them, and frankly they don’t care about grades because they can just go work or live off of Daddy’s money in the end.
Also grade inflation is a big problem. I see so many kids getting upset at getting Bs or B-s in class. Granted, it hurts their GPA for making Dean’s List or graduating with honors, but the University handbook defines a B as “Outstanding classroom performance” where a C is “satisfactory performance”. I think the academic rigor will come back to universities if they start handing out more Cs and Ds for work that deserves them rather than, oh, an A- or B+ because the student is paying alot of moeny for that grade.
Hmm… It’s funny cause at the University (www.fairfield.edu) I work at there’s a mix of really rich kids and middle class kids and it seems to me that the kids with the less money are the ones who work the hardest for the grades cause their parents don’t put up with any BS. The rich ones often coast through the classes because they’ve come to expect the high grades to be handed to them, and frankly they don’t care about grades because they can just go work or live off of Daddy’s money in the end.
Also grade inflation is a big problem. I see so many kids getting upset at getting Bs or B-s in class. Granted, it hurts their GPA for making Dean’s List or graduating with honors, but the University handbook defines a B as “Outstanding classroom performance” where a C is “satisfactory performance”. I think the academic rigor will come back to universities if they start handing out more Cs and Ds for work that deserves them rather than, oh, an A- or B+ because the student is paying alot of moeny for that grade.
Amazing that grade inflation still happens John. I know public schools have to pass a certain number of students to get their funding re-upped but private institutions? What do they care if a student doing failing work fails?
Amazing that grade inflation still happens John. I know public schools have to pass a certain number of students to get their funding re-upped but private institutions? What do they care if a student doing failing work fails?
As I am sure you are aware the high price of tuition is the basis of allowing those individuals who cannot afford to get into college to attend. The reason people how can pay for college pay for college is that educational insinuations long ago decided to play a game between the rich and the poor to find out just what will happen when competition occurs. Strange little world huh? I however agree with you that school is no longer a place of education but a muck of memorization that has no point but the summarization of things that will never be useful. Alas I fear that if the system of education does not change it will become pointless to get an undergraduate education and in that case as is currently the case to succeed it forces the hand of more education even graduate education…
As I am sure you are aware the high price of tuition is the basis of allowing those individuals who cannot afford to get into college to attend. The reason people how can pay for college pay for college is that educational insinuations long ago decided to play a game between the rich and the poor to find out just what will happen when competition occurs. Strange little world huh? I however agree with you that school is no longer a place of education but a muck of memorization that has no point but the summarization of things that will never be useful. Alas I fear that if the system of education does not change it will become pointless to get an undergraduate education and in that case as is currently the case to succeed it forces the hand of more education even graduate education…