Higher Education: An Obituary?

[Kathianne]

Not quite, but changes are forthcoming. There's a thread or two around here where Robert thought I was dissing Khan Academy, never did. Our disagreement was centered on my part anyways, on the ages and grades affected. I still maintain that early and middle elementary students need more than online learning.

However, post-secondary? Khan may be on forefront, but others are gaining, fast. What Robert would not understand or couldn't understand, I've been reading and commenting on this phenomena for over a decade.

http://www.newcriterion.com/articles.cfm/Higher-ed--an-obituary-7516


January 2013
Higher ed: an obituary
On the future of higher education in the Internet age.

The fate of American higher education has been a central concern of The New Criterion from its very first issue in September 1982.

. . .


None of what we have anatomized these thirty-odd years has gone away. If anything, the politicization of the university is worse now than it was when The New Criterion first appeared on the scene. If “the closing of the American mind” or the careers of “tenured radicals” grab fewer headlines today, it is because the realities they name have lost the luster of novelty. They are now the common, institutionalized status quo that defines university life for most of twenty million plus souls who are now matriculated in what we still describe (and with a straight face) as “higher education.”


It is not surprising that many observers despair of achieving fundamental, recuperative change in the institutions of higher education. Decades of withering criticism haven’t done much to move the needle, not least because parents still look to the credential of a BA, especially a BA from a prestigious venue, as a card of entry to the good life of the American dream.
That assumption, we believe, is about to change—is already changing. There are several sources of pressure. One has to do with the changing nature of the American dream itself: Can our society, debt-ridden as it is, continue to offer widespread material rewards to millions of college graduates?


Two related but separate issues revolve around the inner metabolism of higher education, in particular its astronomical and still escalating costs and—an even bigger reality—the wave of technological innovation that is poised to break over the entire institution of higher education like a tsunami.

. . .

[Kathianne]

An observation. If one bothers to read the link above in it's entirety, one will recognize some serious warnings about a 'liberal arts' education major. I do believe there are pitfalls in doing away with such, but have to agree with the lack of prerequisites, making it 'too easy' and irrelevant for hiring practices.


. . .

Mr. Harden acknowledges that a liberal arts education is not simply a matter of imbibing information. Information is not synonymous with knowledge, let alone wisdom, which is the ultimate end of the Arnoldian view of education. Granted that important point, we nonetheless suspect that Nathan Harden is correct: The economic realities heralded by the technological revolution fueled by the Internet are irresistible.


Is this a good thing or a bad thing? We do not profess to know. Time will tell. We suspect that the answer to both parts of the question will be “yes”—that is, there will be both gains and losses. But for now the chief reality to acknowledge is the fundamental change that is nigh. “The most important part of the college bubble story,” Harden argues, “concerns the impending financial collapse of numerous private colleges and universities and the likely shrinkage of many public ones. And when that bubble bursts, it will end a system of higher education that, for all of its history, has been steeped in a culture of exclusivity. Then we’ll see the birth of something entirely new as we accept one central and unavoidable fact: The college classroom is about to go virtual.”

. . .

I believe I mentioned that this morning I watched the video, "Angela's Ashes." For those who've not seen it, basically it's about the grinding poverty and causes in Ireland C. 1930's-40's. While the Catholic schools there were torture, one thing that was required were the classics, in Latin and Greek.

When the protagonist finally emigrates to US, his 8th grade education stands him heads and shoulders above high school grads in US at the time. That is the end, except it's known that the author, Frank McCort, earned a Pultizer for his book, written in the US in 1996.

[Robert A Whit]

You wish to make remarks about me Kathianne. No doubt you want the board to understand I am just a hell of a fine person and your reason for talking bad about me is to show your love.

HAH

[Kathianne]

You wish to make remarks about me Kathianne. No doubt you want the board to understand I am just a hell of a fine person and your reason for talking bad about me is to show your love.

HAH


Not quite, but changes are forthcoming. There's a thread or two around here where Robert thought I was dissing Khan Academy, never did. Our disagreement was centered on my part anyways, on the ages and grades affected. I still maintain that early and middle elementary students need more than online learning.

However, post-secondary? Khan may be on forefront, but others are gaining, fast. What Robert would not understand or couldn't understand, I've been reading and commenting on this phenomena for over a decade.

http://www.newcriterion.com/articles.cfm/Higher-ed--an-obituary-7516



I wasn't making remarks Robert, observations. That's obvious in both posts I quote.

[Robert A Whit]

Educators at large seem hell bent to keep stating they have plans to repair education.

What rank is the USA globally?

Why is it that in other countries, teachers or the system managed to get a better system running and turning out better educated people?

An old saying is if you are doing it wrong, and that has been my thesis, keep doing it wrong so nothing can change.

I spoke of Kahn as one way to effect change and unchain the kids from the adults idea of what is best for kids.

BTW, It seemed to me the dissing was not against Khan, but against this poster.

I don't believe I ever insisted that Khan is best for small kids. I don't recall trying to make age groups into classes of any sort.

[aboutime]

I wasn't making remarks Robert, observations. That's obvious in both posts I quote.



Kathianne. It appears. Now more than an entire year (2012-2013) has passed, and the same problems still remain. Will this ever find a conclusion that settles it????

[Robert A Whit]

Kath, just leave my name out of your ---- observations. Thank you.

[Robert A Whit]

Kathianne. It appears. Now more than an entire year (2012-2013) has passed, and the same problems still remain. Will this ever find a conclusion that settles it????

If your question to her is will she stop talking about other posters, we will see. I have requested she talk topics and stop ... observing posters.

[Kathianne]

Kathianne. It appears. Now more than an entire year (2012-2013) has passed, and the same problems still remain. Will this ever find a conclusion that settles it????

I don't know AT. Seriously, I remember reading McCourt more than a decade ago. Happenstance had me check out the DVD on "Angela's Ashes" days ago. Watched it this morning.

Just read this, you'll note that it's old:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/20/books/20mccourt.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0



Frank McCourt, Whose Irish Childhood Illuminated His Prose, Is Dead at 78Frank McCourt (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/m/frank_mccourt/index.html?inline=nyt-per), a former New York City schoolteacher who turned his miserable childhood in Limerick, Ireland, into a phenomenally popular, Pulitzer Prize (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/p/pulitzer_prizes/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier)-winning memoir, “Angela’s Ashes,” died in Manhattan on Sunday. He was 78 and lived in Manhattan and Roxbury, Conn.

...

Mr. McCourt, who taught in the city’s school system for nearly 30 years, had always told his writing students that they were their own best material. In his mid-60s, he decided to take his own advice, sitting down to commit his childhood memories to paper and producing what he described as “a modest book, modestly written.”


In it Mr. McCourt described a childhood of terrible deprivation. After his alcoholic father abandoned the family, his mother — the Angela of the title — begged on the streets of Limerick to keep him and his three brothers meagerly fed, poorly clothed and housed in a basement flat with no bathroom and a thriving population of vermin. The book’s clear-eyed look at childhood misery, its incongruously lilting, buoyant prose and its heartfelt urgency struck a remarkable chord with readers and critics.

“When I look back on my childhood, I wonder how I survived at all,” the book’s second paragraph begins in a famous passage. “It was, of course, a miserable childhood: The happy childhood is hardly worth your while. Worse than the ordinary miserable childhood is the miserable Irish childhood, and worse yet is the miserable Irish Catholic childhood.


“People everywhere brag and whimper about the woes of their early years, but nothing can compare with the Irish version: the poverty; the shiftless loquacious alcoholic father; the pious defeated mother moaning by the fire; pompous priests; bullying schoolmasters; the English and all the terrible things they did to us for 800 long years.”


“Angela’s Ashes,” published by Scribner in 1996, rose to the top of the best-seller lists and stayed there for more than two years, selling four million copies in hardback. The next year, it won the Pulitzer Prize for biography and the National Book Critics Circle Award.

...

[Kathianne]

Educators at large seem hell bent to keep stating they have plans to repair education.

What rank is the USA globally?

Why is it that in other countries, teachers or the system managed to get a better system running and turning out better educated people?

An old saying is if you are doing it wrong, and that has been my thesis, keep doing it wrong so nothing can change.

I spoke of Kahn as one way to effect change and unchain the kids from the adults idea of what is best for kids.

BTW, It seemed to me the dissing was not against Khan, but against this poster.

I don't believe I ever insisted that Khan is best for small kids. I don't recall trying to make age groups into classes of any sort.

You claimed it was the forum to replace classrooms. That what was in place was not only obsolete, but detrimental. For any grades. That is where we 'got into it.'

[Robert A Whit]

That film really was sad. I may have it in my DVD collection. I shall check.

I am happier at this hour than I was at Noon.

Stanford beat Wisconsin.

naturally Comcast my cable provider did not include that tv station in my package. Back to the radio as in the old days.

[Robert A Whit]

You claimed it was the forum to replace classrooms. That what was in place was not only obsolete, but detrimental. For any grades. That is where we 'got into it.'

Suddenly no link was provided.

[Kathianne]

Educators at large seem hell bent to keep stating they have plans to repair education.

What rank is the USA globally?

Why is it that in other countries, teachers or the system managed to get a better system running and turning out better educated people?

An old saying is if you are doing it wrong, and that has been my thesis, keep doing it wrong so nothing can change.

I spoke of Kahn as one way to effect change and unchain the kids from the adults idea of what is best for kids.

BTW, It seemed to me the dissing was not against Khan, but against this poster.

I don't believe I ever insisted that Khan is best for small kids. I don't recall trying to make age groups into classes of any sort.

Robert, I'm thinking you are unclear on what a thesis is.

http://flyingwords.com/how-to-write-a-thesis-statement.html

http://faculty.southwest.tn.edu/sblack/dspw0800/Memos/ThesisStatements.htm

http://www.kean.edu/~roneilfi/How%20to%20write%20a%20thesis%20statement.htm

[Robert A Whit]

Robert, I'm thinking you are unclear on what a thesis is.

http://flyingwords.com/how-to-write-a-thesis-statement.html

http://faculty.southwest.tn.edu/sblack/dspw0800/Memos/ThesisStatements.htm

http://www.kean.edu/~roneilfi/How%20to%20write%20a%20thesis%20statement.htm

Nope. Thanks for proving that I do know what a thesis is.

[Kathianne]

Educators at large seem hell bent to keep stating they have plans to repair education.

What rank is the USA globally?

Why is it that in other countries, teachers or the system managed to get a better system running and turning out better educated people?

An old saying is if you are doing it wrong, and that has been my thesis, keep doing it wrong so nothing can change.

I spoke of Kahn as one way to effect change and unchain the kids from the adults idea of what is best for kids.

BTW, It seemed to me the dissing was not against Khan, but against this poster.

I don't believe I ever insisted that Khan is best for small kids. I don't recall trying to make age groups into classes of any sort.

Because all is about Robert. Right. Anyone wish to join in the world of Robert. It's a happy place. LOL! See how happy he is!

[Robert A Whit]

Because all is about Robert. Right. Anyone wish to join in the world of Robert. It's a happy place. LOL! See how happy he is!

Absolutely not. If you will shut the fuck up and stop using my name, it will be all about you. And I don't mind that one bit.

[Kathianne]

Absolutely not. If you will shut the fuck up and stop using my name, it will be all about you. And I don't mind that one bit.

Really, you give orders and others fail to heed. Pity. That.