Doom?

Just when I am convinced education is doomed, along comes something that cements my conviction.

Today (or yesterday or the day before or...) I received this month's "higher education" journal. Anyone with any hope that education would somehow save the day would be filled with dismay. Where to start?

Oh, let's go with "rubrics." No, not "Rubric's Cube!" That might be a better thing, overall, for education though. Teachers are now encouraged to give "rubrics" to students when students are given assignments. That is, the rubrics will tell students what teachers expect--you know, sort of giving them the answers. What ever happened to analyzing, critically thinking, etc. to get "the answers the teachers want?" Let's just give it away. Some teachers who do this justified the use of rubrics with, "The students love them!" Well, no kidding! What student wouldn't want most or all of his/her work done, at least the hardest part, for him/her?

Then, on the front page, is the summary of two reports that are supposed to make us feel better about the future. 18-29 year olds of today are "more progressive" than they were 30 years ago. Great, just great. Well, what does "more progressive" mean? Here is one quotation: "we need a strong government to handle today's complex economic problems...." First, why would anyone be surprised to find that someone else should solve our problems? Why should we solve our own problems? Hmmm. I wonder where they learned that...see above about rubrics. Second, government can't handle itself let along "complex economic problems." Deficits, corruption, Fannie and Freddie, CRA, IRS, where to stop?????

On the back page is more. One professor, asked to write a column, I guess, for others to follow, wrote that he asks students "what kind of physics (or history or English or math or....) they want to study this term instead of giving them a syllabus." Ah, says a critic, what a choice, the Bermuda Triangle or Newtonian physics! Of course, (as I am frequently reminded) history would be filled with "the history of rock." Oh, yeah, baby! In English, students could choose comic books (don't laugh, schools have comic book literature courses) instead of Mark Twain, Dostoevskii, etc. Relevance, that's what it is, relevance. Being ignorant of great ideas has become relevant.

And yet another. Apparently, some professors want tenure and promotion credit given for their blogs!! Hey, I might be the dean of some history department, maybe. And these are the people leading, educating the future.

How many ads have we seen about "get your degree in a year," "get college credit for life experiences," etc.? It's not just McCollege, but McEducation. And we expect the youth of today to be prepared to handle ever more difficult problems in the future? What tools are they being given? Not challenges, not difficulties, not qualities, but mush, pabulum.

And what's most disturbing, nobody cares that this is what is happening.

Out to mow the lawn.