Promiscuous College Come-Ons – NYTimes.com.
This was the most recommended comment made on the article. My agreement and reply is posted below it.
gemli
is a trusted commenter Boston Yesterday
I guess it’s just me, but I think we need to educate as many people as possible. We’re electing idiots to Congress, we’re embracing fundamentalism, and when compared on an international stage we have middling scores on almost every measure of academic performance.
Maybe that’s why I’m not interested in schools whose claim to fame is keeping the most people out. It’s good to know that there are elite schools out there, but many of those aforementioned Congressional dim bulbs have degrees from those exclusive schools. These people are elected by the euphemistically-named low-information voters. A more educated populace would make these voters hard to find, and to fool.
It may be a mark of prestige for top schools to reject all but the crème de la crème of applicants and then proudly graduate a few top achievers. It would be more valuable for a school to accept less gifted students and turn out a large number of productive, well-educated citizens.
Mark Feldman
Kirkwood, Mo Yesterday
Lots of us have been making your plea for a long time. But,as professors, we know that college alone is not the answer. Cleaning up college is the answer. And, by that, I especially mean “elite” colleges. Let me go on.
You rightly notice that many people with “degrees” don’t have an “education”. That is because many of our so-called “elite” schools are businesses catering to the “wants” of their “customers”, even when those wants are detrimental to the “needs” of what should be students. Even the use of the word “product” when referring to education, along with making everything from courses to applications easier should give us a hint of what has happened.
(I taught at such a school – Washington U. in St. Louis. Anyone who goes to my blog, inside-higher-ed. , and reads the emails and documents about how administrators think teaching should be done and why, will see that I mean that last paragraph very seriously. And Wash. U. is just a small part of the story.)
As a former professor, there is much more I could say. I will just end with this. People need to understand what is happening and how bad it is – and will remain until these schools are held accountable.
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