Higher Education Gone Wrong

[rrneck]

Universities Are Turning into Corporate Drone Factories
By Chris Hedges, Truthdig

Only 8 percent of U.S. college graduates now receive degrees in the humanities, about 110,000 students. Between 1970 and 2001, bachelor's degrees in English declined from 7.6 percent to 4 percent, as did degrees in foreign languages (2.4 percent to 1 percent), mathematics (3 percent to 1 percent), social science and history (18.4 percent to 10 percent). Bachelor's degrees in business, which promise the accumulation of wealth, have skyrocketed. Business majors since 1970-1971 have risen from 13.6 percent of the graduation population to 21.7 percent. Business has now replaced education, which has fallen from 21 percent to 8.2 percent, as the most popular major.

The values that sustain an open society have been crushed. A university, as John Ralston Saul writes, now "actively seeks students who suffer from the appropriate imbalance and then sets out to exaggerate it. Imagination, creativity, moral balance, knowledge, common sense, a social view -- all these things wither. Competitiveness, having an ever-ready answer, a talent for manipulating situations -- all these things are encouraged to grow. As a result amorality also grows; as does extreme aggressivity when they are questioned by outsiders; as does a confusion between the nature of good versus having a ready answer to all questions. Above all, what is encouraged is the growth of an undisciplined form of self-interest, in which winning is what counts."

http://www.alternet.org/workplace/133446/higher_education_gone_wrong%3A_universities_are_turning_into_corporate_drone_factories/?page=entire

Good piece. I wonder how many aspects of our lives have been affected by the phenomena described in the second paragraph? Do we even realize it? Know anyone that doesn't?

[tjwash]

1. Back in the day...business majors...

...were the spoiled frat-boys who were in college just to party and get laid for 4 years, while their folks footed the bill for everything.

Has it changed?

[daleanime]

2. Only the numbers.....

:scared:

[rrneck]

5. Not to my knowledge.

When I was there just about everybody went at it like that. Or at least it seemed so to me.

I noticed that the streets around the buildings that housed all the business classes got plowed first, and the facilities that housed the humanities classes were always the last to be remodeled and were less well maintained.

It seems to me it's not just business. That attitude seems to have infected just about every aspect of our lives.

[Tempest]

7. You mean I missed out?

I guess it all depends on what you consider "back in the day".

When I was a business major, you wouldn't find us in a frat or partying or trying to get laid.

Our course work was too heavy and our goals too close within reach to be sidetracked by such meaningless endeavours.

But then, my "back in the day" was before the current crop of executives who put personal greed ahead of a financially secured company.

[tjwash]

15. 60's, early 70's

lot's of draft dodgers, lots of partiers. All of them BM's.

[AngryAmish]

28. since more than half of business majors are women, no

[Coyote_Bandit]

3. I have known

some very well read broadly educated folks who did not have any kind of college credentials. Having such an education is a matter of personal desire, discipline and choice. It has almost nothing to do with credentials.

I've also known a lot of folks who had those credentials and were anything but well read and broadly educated - or motivated and desirous of being so.

On the other hand, almost everyone I've have ever known who has enrolled in college has done so to further their career. I think that explains those stats.




In the interest of full disclosure, my undergraduate major was in history.

[rrneck]

6. I've seen

a lot of people who have gotten undergraduate degrees and felt that they had learned everything they need to know forever. The piece of paper has some magical quality to it, as if they never needed to know anything else again.

Part of just getting enough education to profit from it.

[Coyote_Bandit]

10. I agree

I love to learn new things.

Probably explains why I have three other degrees and why I am currently taking classes - 25+ years after getting that history degree.

Of course, that broad education is a detriment in the workforce these days. To much education and you are lacking in direction. Or don't have the specialized skills required. Or you pose a threat to the 25 year old in HR.

[rrneck]

13. In the words of a great sage of our time

"They want people who are just smart enough to run the machinery and do the paperwork..."

George Carlin

[Coyote_Bandit]

19. Great Sage Indeed

Had I listened to him and heeded his advice 30 some years ago I would be in a far better place today.

[Tempest]

4. American universities have turned into the Gordon Gecko school of business

The only goal is to accumulate wealth, and not always by legal or ethical means.

[rrneck]

8. And how many of these

schools of business are turning out psychologists, therapists, teachers, writers, artists, pastors, etc. ?

[reggie the dog]

16. That is just not true

there are still social sciences, humanities, and education departments. I got a BA in history with a minor in sociology and an MA in the teaching of history from 1997 to 2003 at the University of Illinois at Chicago and we were encouraged to think. To study history you had history classes, african american history classes, latino american history classes and native american history classes. I took some of each to get a good idea of what went on. I even made friends who were into business and banking. I know my one banker friend votes Democrat, always has.

[SheilaT]

9. For what it's worth my son

is graduating from the University of Tulsa this May with a degree in psychology. And a minor in marketing.

The real thing with the OP information is that in this country a university education is really much more like trade school. And of course, not everyone needs or should be getting a four year degree in the humanities. We still need plumbers.

[rrneck]

11. At the risk of sounding

cavalier, wouldn't it be nice if trade schools more resembled (good) universities?

Your son's minor is not really a bad thing. Lots of MFA's graduate and don't know what to do with the art they make. Worse, they don't know how to approach artmaking in the real (economic) world.

damn typos

[SheilaT]

27. When he told me he was going to major in psych

because he had no idea what he really wanted to do, I did suggest a minor that might have some practical applications. He has really enjoyed the marketing classes. Also has a philosophy minor and several anthropology courses which he probably liked the best.

And I don't mean to imply that plumbers (or any other such workers) are or should be ignorant dolts. I agree that a plumber with some kind of BA in liberal arts could be a very interesting person to chat to. But I think the core problem in this country with higher education is that there's no real distinction between a true liberal arts foundation, and what is essentially trade school, which includes business degrees, law degrees, and even medical degrees. It seems that the only respect goes to those who get the trade school type degrees, also known as majoring in something practical.

It's likewise true that too many who major in something relatively impractical, such as English lit or anthropology, then graduate and are terribly surprised that a wonderful job doesn't just land in their laps. I'm the one who tells my kids that they should major in what they love, but never lose sight of the fact that they'll have to support themselves with a job post college.

[rrneck]

31. Absolutely. Sounds like he made good use of his time there.

I can't count the number of times I've asked art majors, "How many paintings will you have to produce at a given cost to pay the rent?" A lot of artists, myself included, are incredibly inefficient in the production of their work. It's cultural R&D, and sometimes it takes years and years for it to pay off, if ever. It's a good thing I know how to paint houses and build decks.

[LooseWilly]

23. I beg to differ...

I think a plumber with a degree in literature would be a far more interesting tradesman to have snaking my sink.

I personally got a BA in English Lit, and then drove a taxi for 10 years, and have done a number of other odd jobs.

Of course, there was one job I applied for as a cookie baker, and the cookie store owner wouldn't hire me- "Why don't you go to Law School instead?" was how he concluded the 3 minute interview. Hell, at this point I've got a Lit degree, a minor in CS, I can program in Java, I'm bilingual and speak Spanish, I've written and self-published several novels, and I have 10 years of professional driving experience... and I can't even get a call back about a job as a medical courier.

So the funniest part of the joke is that your line about "We still need plumbers" seems to be extended by employers in this country to mean "we need uneducated plumbers". (I secretly suspect that it's because an employer hates nothing more than an employee who might have other options than staying on the job if the employer is an ass.)

On the other hand, the hospital on the UC Berkeley campus got bulldozed in '92 or so to make room for a new Haas School of Business... while all too many parents seem to groan at the idea of paying for their child to go to art school...

[readmoreoften]

25. They teach plumbing in college?

I did not know.

[damntexdem]

12. Higher education gone wrong? Or American society gone wrong?

It's all in what we value.

[rrneck]

14. Or you get

what you pay for. Culturally speaking.

Reflection is inefficient and unprofitable for business. It pays off handsomely in cultural dividends.

[NashVegas]

17. Hyper-Specialization Is Going to Be the Death of US

I wish I could wave a magic wand and we'd have no more degrees doled out in marketing, communications, MBAs, and media, but you can't stop the horse when it's already out of the barn.

The greatest piece of the puzzle is how large-scale capitalists have managed to cut their training budgets, convince young people to pay for their own, specialized task training to the tune of tens of thousands of dollars, and lowered the bar for screening recruits.

[rrneck]

18. Risk dispersion

at its finest. Why pay for the cow when you can get the milk for free?

[4_TN_TITANS]

20. English major (linguistics) here.

My degree is why I've been successful in business. Communicating effectively with customers and coworkers has kept me employeed for years. Although when I was getting it, I had no idea how my degree would play into any employment!

[XemaSab]

21. My mom parlayed her English degree into technical editing

and after 10+ years of reading every type of environmental consulting document, she knows more than half the technical staff. :P

[malaise]

22. Important article

Imagination, creativity, moral balance, knowledge, common sense, a social view -- all these things wither. Competitiveness, having an ever-ready answer, a talent for manipulating situations -- all these things are encouraged to grow.

-------------
Perfect.

[Tracer]

24. An article from this morning on this subject:

Harvard encourages dusting off the classics
Says esoteric courses enrich learning
http://www.boston.com/news/education/higher/articles/2009/03/30/harvard_encourages_dusting_off_the_classics/


Today, the number of students conversant in Cicero and Plato has dwindled, with only 42 - less than 1 percent of Harvard's 6,640 undergraduates - choosing classics as a major. Then there's Sanskrit and Indian studies, which has three students, and astronomy and astrophysics, with five starry-eyed souls.

Although most students may deem the undersubscribed subjects impractical, the bastion of liberal arts education has in recent years begun promoting learning for learning's sake as a worthy and enriching pursuit. Rather than viewing a major solely as a stepping-stone to a career, the university is pushing students to broaden their interests and explore more esoteric topics.

Professors and students in those subjects insist that studying even the most obscure disciplines can lead to jobs in a variety of fields, from academia to finance.

------

I was surprised that only FIVE kids are studying astronomy and astrophysics out of 6,640. Maybe MIT is a better place for that.

[malaise]

26. Thanks

:hi:

[Blue_Tires]

29. there is such a negative stigma associated with it

or at least there was when i was in college in the late 90s (math major turned english major)...I had a lot of engineering friends at a big-name tech school crosstown, and they had a million jokes for liberal arts majors...

the fact that there are so many of us out there and jobs have been scarce hasn't helped things...

[Stevenmarc]

30. If you're looking at huge honking debt at the end, who wouldn't

choose a wildly high paying career in the humanities.

[rrneck]

32. Ain't that the damn truth.

Capitalism: The science of locating a place in people's souls to insert the pumpjack.

[SoCalDem]

33. Also "back in the day", for the women who attended, teaching was

about the ONLY major that would guarantee them a permanent job, with a pension & benefits...

It's only been recently, that women would command high wages in the business field.. It was not that long ago, that a woman;s career in "business" meant that she worked FOR a man in a business setting..as his "assistant" or his "Gal Friday"..