8/9/2019 College Rant
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used so improvements can be continually made by anyone.
3. In a traditional classroom, no one wants to look stupid in
front of others, so few students arewilling to ask questions.
Therefore, the course should also have a very long FAQ section-
forwell-established material like calculus, every conceivable
question has probably already beenasked. So an online tutor (a live
person) would be N/A, reducing cost even further.
4. Since this method bypasses the traditional college, there
must be a way of objectively testingstudents and preventing online
cheating. Regular exams could be given live at local highschools,
etc. The course and standard tests must be accredited so students
can easily transfercredit between virtual and traditional colleges
anywhere. Having a standard test would make iteasier to compare
students across the country, especially for employment.
5. You really teach yourself. Some people say they need the
pressure of school to study- if theyreally need to spend $40k a
year in tuition to motivate themselves, then perhaps they
shouldn'tbe in college. Higher education should be for people who
want to learn.
6. If learning is greatly enhanced, then the current 8 semesters
of college can be reduced, savingeven more money. Another
fundamental question is which classes are even necessary andwhich
are useless (forgotten after taking the final exam). Most
professions don't require most of
the courses taught in schools! So why even take them?
Doctors and lawyers esp. have WAY too many classes, and could
significantly cut their studentloans by reducing the number.
Education should also be more practical- more integrated,
multi-disciplinary courses instead of single-subject classes. There
should be a continuous debatebetween what's needed for the
workforce and to be "educated" vs. what's actually taught inschool.
Picking people to be doctors or lawyers primarily on grades is
flawed- biased towardsthe wrong kind of people. Personality is
equally important for success. For most lawyers, I wouldsay
personality is the biggest factor in their success, not their LSAT
scores.
7. The biggest problem with online classes, of course, is the
lack of "hands-on" training. Suchclasses could still be done in
traditional schools or provided by companies.
8. Colleges do serve an important function in terms of
scholarship and research. However, thecurrent college system
(tantamount to an apprenticeship), esp. for graduate students is
suited fortraining future professors- but that's N/A for most
students who seek jobs in the real world upongraduation. Currently,
universities use undergraduate tuition (which is profitable) to
subsidizegraduate tuition (which is not profitable) - is that
fair?
The academic world is just as competitive and status-obsessed as
any athletic competition. Thedifference is that status is measured
by how abstruse the subject is or at least appears to be.This
explains why academic prose is pretentious gibberish where the key
intent is to "impress",not to convey information. In the case of
literature, academics tend to prize obscure andsymbolic works
("artistic intent") over clear writing and "mere" entertainment.
Likewise, inmathematics/science, research papers are written to
impress peers with their difficulty, not clarity.In this kind of
climate, it's no wonder teaching is so bad. The feeling is that the
truly smart
students will learn the material anyway despite the bad
teaching.
College tuition is so expensive because it largely pays for the
bloated overhead of theseantiquated institutions- NOT for the
actual teaching and courses. So the answer isn't morestudent-aid
and loans- that just allows colleges to raise tuition even more.
Many middle-classparents ask how they can afford to send their kids
to college- that's the wrong question. The realissue is getting a
good education in a cost effective manner, not attending a
"prestigious"(exorbitant) university.
Higher education is certainly important- but whoever said it can
only be provided by colleges and
