College

I'm finishing Andrew Deblanco's College: What it is, Was, and Should Be.

Here is a clip of the author talking about the subject.




Here are some of my favorite parts

On the purpose of college (is it to broaden minds? to educate responsible citizens to excel in a democracy? to prepare students for the work force?)

"students no longer 'arrive in awe of the institution and its faculty, content to receive their education via lecture and happy to let the faculty decide what was worth knowing.'"

Here is where I think some high school teachers struggle.  For this was the school system we were educated and raised in.  School was where the knowledge was kept, where we got to see our friends, and what kept up out of trouble since our parents were working.  The reality of our students today looks nothing like this.  And we - as teachers - have to adapt and change or become irrelevant.

Now they [students] show up knowing 'full well that authorities can be found for every position and any knowledge claim, and consequently . . . [they are] dubious (privately, that is) about anything we claim to be true or important.'"

This is a major challenge for us.  Especially now that we'll be in a 1:1 environment.  But what a great challenge to rise up to.  It will be a shame (in my opinion) if all some teachers do is continue business as usual (which never works all that well anyway).

This is a comment from Judith Shapiro talking to a group of students about what they should expect from college: "You want the inside of your head to be an interesting place to spend the rest of your life."

I love that.

Another thing to expect in college?  To come into contact with (quoting Matthew Arnold here) "the best which has been thought and said in the world."  There is merit, and I know this sounds old school of me, in experiencing the best that has ever been thought and written by humans.

My College Comp students will see that again when they encounter the two novels they have to read off of our novels list.  I always get students who want to research and write about a modern novel.  And the radical part of me want them to focus on the works they find interesting.  Maybe they will realize that the works of Stephen King, Michael Crichton, and Jodi Picoult don't stack up against the works of Herman Melville, Charles Dickens, and Toni Morrison.

But there is something to be said about reading the best stuff from the past.

Another purpose of college (at least originally)

"for undergraduates to witness social and intellectual exchange among their superiors, in the hope that they would aspire someday to be worthy of sitting among them."

I think this old-school purpose of college is still important, though I definitely think it's gone out of fashion.  There are several reasons

First, education theory - instead of encouraging students to rise to the professor's high standards, there began a education reform movement to instead have the professor dumb down her standards so that she may "start where the student is" and then eventually lead them to the professor's lofty standards.

Second, the students.  Since universities put so much importance into student evaluations, you have professors moving away from this old school, sink or swim, approach to teaching.  What if the students all mark the professor down on the end of the year evaluations as too esoteric or out of date?

Third, the culture.  Students live now in the most stimulating environment in the history of the world.  With their laptops and smartphones, they are constantly plugged in and can get updates on everything from trivial matters (Twitter and Facebook) to serious information (CNN, ESPN, NY Times, and Huffington Post) in seconds.  So is it really fair to expect a students to 'unplug' from this constantly stimulating and engaging environment to wrestle with lofty intellectual and academic ideas that will leave them confused and frustrated (things - outside of gaming - students rarely experience).

Fourth, the parents.  There has been a shift in the past 35 years away from the old family dinner conversations (if they ever even happened) where the parents talk about serious subjects and the children listen and try to make sense of it and contribute.  That world (again, if it ever even existed in anything other than Leave it to Beaver episodes) is long gone.  Today, the family doesn't gather at anything other than maybe sporting events.  And the emphasis is certainly not on the kids listening to the parents talk about current events or political happenings.  Instead, the focus is on the child as parents rush from work to make it in time to catch their child's JV game.  Where is the intellectual role modeling?

One of my favorite parts of Delbanco's book is when he concludes the section on what college was (and still should be): "Yet, the fact that students can be touched and inspired as well as trained and informed has always been the true teacher's aim and joy . . . Teachers have always been -- and, let us hope, always will be -- in the business of trying to 'get the soul out of bed, out of her deep habitual sleep.'"

 When it comes to examining the college classroom and what it should ideally look like, Delbanco quotes a student who came to America's college system

Coming from a culture in which a "standard answer" is provided for every question, I did not argue with others even when I disagreed. However, Bowdoin forced me to re-consider "the answer" and reach beyond my comfort zone. In my first-year seminar, "East Asian Politics," I was required to debate with others and develop a habit of class engagement. This sometimes meant raising counterarguments or even disagreeing with what had been put forward. For instance, one day we debated what roles Confucianism played in the development of Chinese democracy. Of the 16 students in the classroom, 15 agreed that Confucianism impeded China's development; but I disagreed. I challenged my classmates. Bowdoin made me consistently question the "prescribed answer." That was the biggest challenge for me.

I think all of these examples illustrate the importance of a college education.  But what really opened my eyes were how few people initially went to college prior to the GI Bill.

I believe before World War II, something like two percent of our population went to college.  Today?  That's laughable.  Right?  Of course, upwards of 60% of college students today actually leave without degrees.  So perhaps we should revisit the current obsession with pushing kids to college (not that the colleges and universities mind since it's a great influx of cash), but to come out of "college" without a degree and a small mortgage in college debt is ludicrous.

From my perspective, the best reason to attend college came out of an interaction I had with a student over my "professional week" assignment in College Comp 2.  This assignment includes dressing nicely (shirt and tie if possible) and then ending the week with our Digi Key interviews (a team at Digi Key grills the students on all that they should have learned in College Comp 2).  The student, who was not one to dress up, complained, "But you're trying to change who we are."

I didn't know how to respond.  But the more I thought about it the more I realized, Yes, Dammit.  I am. That's exactly what college is all about: changing who you are. 

For if you don't want to change, if you already know it all, then save yourself tens of thousands of dollars and just stay home.  College is all about becoming a better version of you.