So after taking my degree in (wait for it, hold the sniggering) English, I took advantage of having RA instead of US in front of my serial number. A Liberal Arts degree is handy in the most unexpected places. The question was, “what did you learn in college?” Asked by one of 4 Drill Sergeants in a freezing cold barracks at Fort Leonard Wood to the 10 college recruits out of the 150 men in our company.
Because of extensive reading, the forced ability to analyze, and the sense to listen to my father’s advice, (6 years in uniform in WWII I understood just how deep the shit I was that a wrong(actually any) answer would put me in. My answer? “I learned I wasn’t as smart as I thought I was.” The response was that maybe I did learn something.
I was a terrible student.
BUT
I survived the military from 1969 to 1971, and figured out all kinds of ways to feed myself & a family over a lifetime.
That worthless degree taught me to figure out what mattered, and the terrible cost of sacrificing your values.
I appreciate many points you make here, and I agree that our higher education system has become way too transactional and functions, in most cases, as a certification machine (I would also add that it's also a means for people with resources to delay their kids' entry into adulthood for at least four years).
But I'm not sure I'd buy the claim that it's still a sorting mechanism for elites; given the portion of Americans who at least have some college education (50+%?) this is hardly an opportunity only for elites. Also, I'd add that the growth of administrators in higher education (and I speak as one of them) comes from 1) increased compliance obligations from the federal government, and 2) changing expectations of support and intervention on behalf of students, including for things like persistence to degree.
I also fault K-12 education and the NCLB testing movement for students' lack of engagement and transactional attitude toward school. It's hard for colleges and universities to be places for students to discover real learning and inquiry after 12 years of taking tests.
I would say there are essentially tiers of credentials. They exits in an unofficial hierarchy that is understood. The credentialing machine isn't just college or not, but also which college you attend.
There are thousand of colleges but saying in graduated from one that is not an Ivy, a little Ivy, or high end liberal arts college does not make you elite. Someone who graduate Vassar, grad school at MIT, and then post-doc at UC Berkeley is an elite, even if they are low ability and publish no papers and did no ground breaking research. They can get a college prof job, work at a big four consultancy, or walk into a high level corporate job. I have seen this first hand. They are credentialing factories much more so than places that drive excellence, create leaders, or whatever their tag line is now. Getting in to the first is all one needs to do to walk into a successful life. Thinking otherwise is laughable.
Are there good people, yes. Are there amazing people, also yes. But these exception don’t prove the rule.
Sobering read. Identifying the issues is the first step to fixing them
So after taking my degree in (wait for it, hold the sniggering) English, I took advantage of having RA instead of US in front of my serial number. A Liberal Arts degree is handy in the most unexpected places. The question was, “what did you learn in college?” Asked by one of 4 Drill Sergeants in a freezing cold barracks at Fort Leonard Wood to the 10 college recruits out of the 150 men in our company.
Because of extensive reading, the forced ability to analyze, and the sense to listen to my father’s advice, (6 years in uniform in WWII I understood just how deep the shit I was that a wrong(actually any) answer would put me in. My answer? “I learned I wasn’t as smart as I thought I was.” The response was that maybe I did learn something.
I was a terrible student.
BUT
I survived the military from 1969 to 1971, and figured out all kinds of ways to feed myself & a family over a lifetime.
That worthless degree taught me to figure out what mattered, and the terrible cost of sacrificing your values.
It’s there. Want it? Go find it.
I appreciate many points you make here, and I agree that our higher education system has become way too transactional and functions, in most cases, as a certification machine (I would also add that it's also a means for people with resources to delay their kids' entry into adulthood for at least four years).
But I'm not sure I'd buy the claim that it's still a sorting mechanism for elites; given the portion of Americans who at least have some college education (50+%?) this is hardly an opportunity only for elites. Also, I'd add that the growth of administrators in higher education (and I speak as one of them) comes from 1) increased compliance obligations from the federal government, and 2) changing expectations of support and intervention on behalf of students, including for things like persistence to degree.
I also fault K-12 education and the NCLB testing movement for students' lack of engagement and transactional attitude toward school. It's hard for colleges and universities to be places for students to discover real learning and inquiry after 12 years of taking tests.
Looking forward to Part II!
I would say there are essentially tiers of credentials. They exits in an unofficial hierarchy that is understood. The credentialing machine isn't just college or not, but also which college you attend.
There are thousand of colleges but saying in graduated from one that is not an Ivy, a little Ivy, or high end liberal arts college does not make you elite. Someone who graduate Vassar, grad school at MIT, and then post-doc at UC Berkeley is an elite, even if they are low ability and publish no papers and did no ground breaking research. They can get a college prof job, work at a big four consultancy, or walk into a high level corporate job. I have seen this first hand. They are credentialing factories much more so than places that drive excellence, create leaders, or whatever their tag line is now. Getting in to the first is all one needs to do to walk into a successful life. Thinking otherwise is laughable.
Are there good people, yes. Are there amazing people, also yes. But these exception don’t prove the rule.