Here it is.
“The author writes that “…The real issue is: how do you make college affordable again?..”. If that is all we do, “…make college affordable…” we will continue to get the system we have: institutions marketing and catering to uneducated consumers (in the past, quaintly known as students), a trillion dollars of student debt, unqualified graduates; and, worst of all, unqualified teachers.
If, instead of focusing on college, we focus on making “education” affordable, we will get graduates that can contribute to our economy and society, teachers with the skills and confidence they need to teach well, and a better country.
I am a former professor. I have observed and thought about this, as have many other concerned professors. I cannot warn too much about how much professors and universities aren’t all like those you see in “At Berkeley”. To paraphrase Mark Twain, the bad thing about them is that they are just like the rest of us. Or, to paraphrase Adam Smith, they are a congenial group, each of which will never bother the others about not doing their duty, as long as noone bothers him about doing his duty. The easiest duty to avoid doing is teaching what students what they need, instead of what they want. As David Riesman once put it,
“…the “wants” of students to which competing institutions, departments, and individual faculty members cater are quite different from the “needs” of students..”
Many will cater to whoever offers the money and prestige.”
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