In her New York Times Op-Ed, SUZANNE METTLER, points out how college now increases inequality. This is no surprise to readers of this blog. Here are the relevant posts.
American 15-Year-Olds Fall Further Back in Math
No Jobs for Ph.D’s? Depends on what you mean by Ph.D.
Professor Alfred Doesn’t Know What is Wrong with the Homework
Not Being Good at Math – Should That Be a Bar to Getting a PhD in Math?
I don’t agree with factual basis for NYTimes Op-Ed
Here is the comment I posted on Prof. Mettler’s Op-Ed. (http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/03/01/college-the-great-unleveler/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=1&)
Here is another quote from Robert Maynard Hutchins that characterizes many institutions of higher education, including many “elite” nonprofits:
“…when an institution determines to do something in order to get money it must lose its soul … I do not mean…that universities do not need money…I mean only that they should have an educational policy and then try to finance it, instead of letting financial accidents determine their educational policy.”
Many universities lost their “soul” when they realized that they could take advantage of trusting parents and a trusting country by transforming people who were once quaintly called “students” into “consumers”. Those consumers know their wants but those “wants” are not always their “needs”. Far too many unscrupulous universities and professors cater to those wants, knowingly neglecting the student estate’s needs. (This was noted by David Riesman as far back as 1980.)
I have seen all of this up close and personal. I am a retired professor who once taught at one of these “elite” universities, where I was asked to do things that shock me to this day. To read more, and find more about what Riesman and others had to say, you can go to my blog www.inside-higher-ed.com
To summarize, the problem with higher education in America is a lack of scruples, nothing else.”
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