A Different Perspective

 

Yesterday...  I went to my wife's hair stylist for my quarterly hair cut (cost:  $20) and it takes about 20 minutes not including the conversation that sometimes is involved...  My appointment was his first, and I had to wait in his chair for him to arrive as he was running late.

During the experience, he just "out of the blue," made the statement that the US was turning into a 3RD WORLD COUNTRY and that politicians on both sides have allowed this to happen over the last 50 years and did nothing about it...  I asked him why he felt that way...  his response was, "this kind of stuff does not happen over night..."

My wife's hair stylist is a high school dropout...

He also informed me that for the last year he has been asking high school girls who have made appointments with him what they have learned in school or what they might have learned today, and the overwhelming response by them was...  NOTHING...  I LEARNED NOTHING TODAY...

Now, this may not be indicative of the entire USA or even the entire State of Tennessee, but it is still scary...  What supports this for me is the fact that I have been teaching college students night courses in business since 2015 and have come into contact with the following:

• My college students read at a Junior High School level
• My college students write at a Junior High School level
• My college students present at a Junior High School level
• My college student don't do homework
• My college student don't prepare for class
• My college students want to be told exactly what to do
• My college students don't have critical thinking skills
• My college students don't have problem solving skills
• My college students don't work well together in teams
• My college students don't have self starting skills

Our New College Student

For my entire career which lasted 45+ years, my jobs, positions, assignments revolved around education...  either I was educating the States and its counties on the "ARTS", or I was educating employees of business and industry on how to improve processes to generate more output, or I was teaching classes to businesses and industries on a variety of issues to support their Human Resources Department, or I was hiring teachers to teach or I was teaching students in College Classes who were pursuing degrees or I was designing training programs for business and industry and education in the areas of Management, specifically Project Management.  Oftentimes, I worked with a technical design team out of New Delhi, India who provided all sorts of backroom support for companies here in America.

Over my 45 year career, I have watched how EDUCATION has been diluted to accommodate those students who did not have natural mental abilities and talents and who, would never have been accepted into any reputable University or College unless they were dependents of alumni or of a generous benefactor.  

One nasty concept that Universities and Colleges learned in the last 20-30 years was the concept that REVENUES were more important students retaining knowledge...   AND... as long as 80% of their graduates knowledgeable and able to contribute to a company...   the other 20% no longer mattered.  In other words, they could admit 20% of their student body with applicants from people who did not possess the skills or have the academic foundation to go to college.

University Administrators than put pressure on the faculty members to give these students "C's" so that they could graduate even when they did not earn the "C".

This concept first started with the PROPRIETARY SCHOOLS then gradually made its way into to the smaller 4 year schools, not just in the Southern States but all over the USA.  States that had COMMUNITY COLLEGES were authorized to admit EVERYONE as long as they could pay the tuition...  and, in some States like TENNESSEE, COMMUNITY COLLEGES are FREE OF CHARGE...

Now you have students wanting to attend a 4 year College or University as a JUNIOR...  and, it does not matter what kind of grades are made at the COMMUNITY COLLEGE as long as they are "C's" because ALL GRADES only transfer in as "C's" anyway.

If the student is a Business Major, English Grammar is no longer taught or even considered when grading papers...  neither is science, biology, chemistry, history, political science, philosophy, psychology, etc.   

And, if a student has gotten to the level of a JUNIOR, the odds are ALL FACULTY will make sure that this student graduates.