OBAMA "announced plans to create a federal rating system that would allow parents and students to easily compare colleges. And he said he would urge Congress to pass legislation to link the student aid to the rating system."It sounds like a joke, but then it happens.
Jesus. We're all customer service now.
ReplyDeleteI'm pretty sure out SLAC would end up right where it is: with students who don't belong in college being sponsored to stay in college.
ReplyDeleteLikewise.
DeleteWe are all well and truly tea partied.
ReplyDeleteWill there be chili peppers?
ReplyDeleteThe root of the problem:
ReplyDelete"From junior kindergarten to Grade 2, the child’s classes march linewise down the hall to the school library for a weekly visit. Pre-selected books in a box wait to be grabbed and checked out at the end of library period. The students file in and obediently sit down. The librarian dims the lights and presses play on the DVD player. The child reads in the dark as the videos play. The librarian confiscates the book. “Stop reading and watch this movie.”
During library period in grade 4 the librarian teaches the children computer skills: making their names appear in various colours and fonts on the screen and designing brochures. At the end of the period there are a few minutes to check out two books. Most children decline the offer. The child sees a book she wants high on the top shelf and asks the librarian to reach it for her. “No. You can’t have anything with a yellow sticker. They are too hard for you. You might be able to read it, but you wouldn’t understand it. Pick one of the books with green stickers.” Green stickers mark the spines of The Magic School Bus, The Babysitters’ Club and The Pokemon Guidebook. The book the child has just finished reading, Oliver Twist, is not in the library at all."
John, Paul, George and Ringo on a tandem bicycle. "Stop reading and watch this movie."
DeleteWhen I was that age, I had to get formal permission from my parents to check out books from the high school section (Edith Hamilton's Mythology was my first). However, the librarians were thrilled. My teachers were thrilled. I got no push-back at all. What the fuck is going on in that school?
I was able to comprehend Edith Hamilton just fine. That fuckwit teacher would have had trouble fitting me into his worldview. That's what you get when the scrapings of the barrel are the ones taking elementary ed.
On the other hand, my parents had to intervene in my second-grade math class because I wasn't paying attention; instead, I was reading ahead in the math book.
Uh, OK, Obama. Go fly a drone or something.
ReplyDeleteI know this is going to sound right-wing, but I'll have the run the risk: the federal government has no business being involved in education at all. Obama: go help the freaking Syrians being gassed by Assad Jr. and stop wasting your energy messing around with things that don't need your solutions.
ReplyDeleteIt does sound so. A more elegant solution would be to exclude from federal student aid schools whose prize tag goes beyond a reasonable limit. The government has a function enabling citizens to become more knowledgeable.
DeleteThere's something to be said for finding a "fair" way to cut off the teat that the University of Phoenix and its clones are sucking.
DeleteI'm actually in favor of more information being available to the public in more uniform, usable form (i.e., un-spun by the university PR department). I'd especially like to see transparency about who is teaching the majority of intro classes, in what format, and at what pay/employment status. But I'm also cynical enough to know that, whatever rating system the government comes up with, schools will spend vast amounts of time and money trying to manipulate their ratings, rather than actually trying to improve instruction. The right metrics might push things in a favorable direction, more or less as a side effect, but I'm not overly hopeful.
ReplyDelete@Doctor BPD: I know this is going to sound right-wing, but I'll have the run the risk: the federal government has no business being involved in education at all.
ReplyDeleteTruth is truth no matter whence it comes. Rejecting a truth because of the other people who've stated it is feces-flinging tribalism appropriate only for plains apes.
People have been getting educations for thousands of years before Washington D. C. was ever built, and as the Federal government has got more involved outcomes at all levels have failed to improve despite the TRIPLING of education funding, PER STUDENT, since 1965 (yes, corrected for inflation). That doesn't mean that the Federal government caused the problems, nor does it mean the problems would not necessarily have been worse absent their meddling--but you can ALWAYS say that about anything. What is indisputably, empirically true is that Federal involvement has done sweet F. A. for improving educational outcomes.
There are many countries in this world where families take on the primary burden of educating their young people, and while education is not nearly as widespread in this countries at east their high school and college graduates can read and add fractions. We have nearly everyone graduating high school and not knowing anything because we keep lowering standards.
The government doesn't make shoes or cell phones, yet the majority of us seem to have them.