STUDY: APPROXIMATELY 65% OF AMERICAN UNIVERSITIES FAILING IN THE ...
Many people sent versions of the following story, and as most know, I have to rant occasionally about the deplorable state of Amairikuhn edgykayshun, a cesspool of mediocrity that I have laid firmly at the feet of the pseudo-discipline of "education," the "doctors" of said subject, the stupidity of "teacher certification", a requirement based upon the nitwittery of progressivist educational philosophy that began in the 19th century in the USA after the War Between the States, and which has continued unabated until now in its most recent manifestation of mediocrity: common core and its "individualized assessment process." Consider this article and its bleak report:
And this excerpt says it all:
"What Will They Learn? finds that the majority of college-educated students graduate without exposure to fundamental courses like American history, basic economics or literature. At many institutions, it is possible for students to graduate with little more knowledge of these basic courses than a high school student, often after paying $200,000 or more for their degree."
The various institutions were given "report cards" on their performance in terms of providing students with adequate knowledge of seven fundamental subjects considered essential for a classic liberal arts degree: "literature, composition, economics, math, intermediate-level foreign language, science and American government/history."
Out of the 1,100 colleges and universities involved, only 24 (two percent) were given an "A" grade for requiring six of the seven essential subjects.
Only three percent of both private and public institutions require Economics. Of public institutions, only 27 percent require US History/Government courses and only 10 percent of private institutions require the same.
A mere 13 percent require intermediate-level fluency in a foreign language.
Notably, the article points out that university education prices are skyrocketing, while the return on investment in the form of actually learning anything at these institutions of quackademia - other than, perhaps, learning how to be offended at anything, espcially if it does not espouse the loony leftist philosophy espoused by the majority of quackademia itself - declines. One may, of course, and in many institutions is now required to take courses in multiculturalism, gender studies, and be trained in various types of "sensitivity," all with the objective of learning how to be offended at points of view other than one's own. One does not have to learn the basic academic disciplines themselves.The average cost indeed leaves me breathless, for the entire cost of my own personal education, while high, was an order of magnitude smaller, and that included not just undergraduate, but graduate and post-graduate work!
My impression, when I read studies like this, remains the same: Amairikuhn Edgykayshun is fraud, pure and simple fraud, and the "professional educators" with their claptrap theories of methodology and pedagogy, all the courses on "educational psychology" and all the emphasis of "experts" on their "standardized tests" are to blame. And this at a time when the USA and the West in general are faced with an implacable and genocidal ideology, when it faces a rising challenge from Russia, China, India,a nd so on.It is time for local school boards to realize that if your superintendent or principal has a degree with "Ed." in it, it's probably time to be looking for someone with a degree without that symbol and signal indicator of mediocrity and nonsense, that is, start looking for the M.Sc.s and M.A,s, and if appplicants for positions have M.A., Ed., or M.Sc.,Ed on their resume, put them in the reject pile immediately. And Ed.D. goes right into the trash bin. And it's time, too, to dramatically curtail the salaries of "administrators" and to do away with the "cost-cutting" expedient of the adjunct professor, and to pay for real professors of real subjects from the bloated salaries of administrators and other essentially useless functionaries. Of course, if I had my way, I would put the Oxbridge system into place in the USA, where faculties are the administration of universities and colleges. But... I know... I dreaming.
See you on the flip side...
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Calling it an education, when it is indoctrination and schooling, just shows how far the language has been corrupted. If it was truly an educational system, one of the first things they would teach is formal logic. Without that for a basis, most people don’t even understand their own language. But teaching formal logic would get the students to question to legitimacy of everythign, and there hardly seems to be a weaker for anything than there is for ‘authority’ and ‘jurisdiction’ to start with. Education requires questioning your schooling.
Maybe Europe is not as much devolved education wise as the USA. It will vary from country to country but I recognise the same broad problems.
I can only “dof my hat” at the parasites who came up with this brilliant system where we put our kids in debt for years on end and who are super specialised in one topic and therefore can’t function/relate with the world around them let alone connect any dots to anything.
It is a fraud I tell the young people I know who are going to college , make sure you learn something that you can use later in life so you don’t become a debt Slave , they had to find something to print money for why not give loans for useless classes to the young generation to have them in debt forever , it’s a shame
Two observations here: “Intent” and “Progress”.
As far as Progress, it has been impossible since Leonardo DaVinci to become a general master-of-everything. Too much accumulated human knowledge – which is a good thing. Specialization occurs ever-earlier, leaving little time for ‘unneeded’ fields. Since technology seems to be our cultural goal, the other disciples are brushed further and further down in priority.
As far as Intent, I do not believe it is Chance that fields which would develop well-rounded, questioning citizens are being downplayed. Technologists are the coal-miners of today. All of their time is spent absorbing facts in their discipline, with nary a heads-up toward larger ‘realities’. Perfect for a 21st-century equivalent of coal-miners or factory workers. No (true) Big Picture training, thank you very much…
goshawks,
have you heard of vinod khosla? or joseph farrell? and some of their readers?
ZDB, I am not sure where your comment is coming from. Please clarify…
On Progress, I was bearing witness as to how my engineering courses forced-out most humanist courses to try to keep the degree down to four years. (Many students took five years to even-complete the basic degree requirements; it was a ‘real’ degree.) It took me several years and two more degrees on entirely-different subjects to even partially ’round me out’. Plus, decades of personal research getting towards real truth. Blaming the ‘educational system’ for this is partially besides-the-point; the only way to educate a person these days with any completeness is a 10+ year degree…
On Intent, I have noticed that Joseph ridicules “Amairikuhn edgykayshun” without really delving-into the Dark Side. Costs, yes. Poor education, yes. But not into a deep ‘Why’ this is being carried-out. I was attempting to carry-on the conversation to this deeper level.
And yes, readers point-out what I am talking-about far more than Joseph acknowledges in his columns. They are to be commended!
agreed and then some is where it’s going.
khosla’s one fairly sharply educated guy. figured you might have seen his resume. used to be a hero of mine. was throwing doc into that mix as well. and some of doc’s readers here as well. so yeh, that was a small autologous ego transplant. in other words, my shoulder hurts from patting my own (and everyone here’s) back.
and even though i’m disillusioned by khosla’s reaction to neocon belligerence (i still think more could have been done to deal with it by a large group of powerful tech oligarchs), i still think his venture capital performance is impressive.
and to be sure, in spite of the rounding you wanted back then, you’ve done well and most of us are envious of what you got back then and what you did with it.
so yeh. your understatement (and doc’s) is more obvious than you might think. it’s also functional given the nature of the mess.
progressive educational philosophy since 19th century Doc. F?? so very interesting
nitro hot speculation ? in that era(little later) there also was the change in music htz. to the middle A of the music note to A = 440 hertz from 444 high or 432 low? the theosophy clan was having a bigger influence on the movers and shakers on the big scene? sounds like i’m just another kook?oh well its fun being a kook.i have a vast many weird ideas and ???
Sorry…this A=440 thing is a bunch of nonsense. I’ve spoken MANY times to this in the members’ vidchats.
From what I was taught in music theory, A going from 440 to 444 was because this slight sharpness causes the instrument to stand out a bit, so the first vilin in an orchestra would tune a bit sharp so their solo would be easier to hear. It was just basically ‘mission creep’. I don’t think it matters to most music, since electronic tuners and tuning forks haven’t changed, it’s just orchestras, but I’m not sure how many are doing this. I tune to A440 because that’s what my tuner uses as a reference. I’m pretty sure this is the standard practice. I’ve never been in any situation where I’ve seen anything different. I tend to use a slightly heavier gauge of guitar string for the tone, as well as tuning stability, so usually everybody else tuned to me. Even a flute player i once played with.
duncan,
i’ll bite. please point me to a website or book that splains it in a functional manner. i want to be able to play an instrument in 440 and retune it to 432 and judge for myself if there is a difference. guitar perhaps?
joseph,
did you discuss the origin of this one?
thank you
zdb
If you want to do that, then perhaps something like the Roland V-guitar or a pitch shiftershould do it. If you have dawsoftware, you should be able to do the same thing.
i was thinking of more subjective proofs – like more acoustic?
There was a recent study, which I will link here, that really nailed why tuition is skyrocketing, and, of course, the answer is the non-dischargeable student debt signed into being by the Clinton Administration. http://armstrongeconomics-wp.s3.amazonaws.com/2015/12/Tuition-Study.pdf
This was, as usual, a huge gift to the banks by the Clinton Administration, and explains why the banks supported Hillary both for Senate and for the Presidency. Of course, this was not the greatest gift to the banks that Clinton gave. But I think that this audience knows that that already.
When mass education came out it was a fraud from the beginning. Lucky there were books, magazines, and newspaper if you knew how to read through the psycho-babel in them you could get information from them. Schools are to paraphrase a certain mayor of Chicago there to prevent education not promote education and this includes the ruling class itself. If you think they’re educated you must be taking something to effect your mind. If these jerks were truly educated they wouldn’t be doing the things they’re doing in the first place they would know better. It called self preservation which these idiots know nothing of they dream money will buy them safety.
Like other disciplines education has been politicized and thus corrupted. Now they go not for the learning but for the connections to network; as it is who you know, not what you know. Besides the history been politicized[for instance archaeology], the economics[Michael Hudson on debt being ignored Chicago Style], the high end math/physics[anti gravity and so on]. These disciplines and more are being directed towards a looney toon degree producing an ultra maroon[moron], embezzle[imbecile], and/or nincowpoop.
When they graduate into the real world it will be as a freshly mass produced debt slave.
Ironically the administrators gamed[literally using real video games purposely designed for this outcome] the higher education system to be some of its highest paid saboteur.
Hey, it’s Natural News, they think Obama is out to drone “patriots” in the USA.
Anyhow, when you count the University of Phoenix as an “university”, the statistic is likely true. But it pretty much disappears when counting serious public and private universities, with professors having degrees in the field they teach.
lost, you might have more than you think there. some of those private universities are going out of business too fast to be tracked even though their stolen fraudulent govt grant and loan monies are sure to be tracked for the rest of their victims’ (ahem students’) lives. lots more than just phoenix and worse too. doesn’t the washington post own one of the biggest?
American education is a fraud alright, but it is also a perfect system for turning the middle & working classes of American into permanent debt slaves. In that respect, it is a brilliant move by our evil overlord masters.