An Excellent Series of Articles in the Atlantic

“Far too many students are learning to do whatever it takes to get ahead—even if that means sacrificing individuality, health, happiness, ethical principles, and behavior.”

Source: What Values Really Matter in the College Application Process? – The Atlantic

This is part of a series of three articles by Alia Wong.  I recommend them all.  I will be adding my comments and input.  I just posted this comment on the article.

This is a red herring. (As a matter of fact, I seem to recall a Vice-Provost for Red Herrings. I think it reported to the Marketing (I’m sorry, Admissions) Dept.) Anyway, here is the herring – after which I will point out the fox in sheepskin clothing.

From the article,

“…’The values and behaviors this system signals as important..’ a report…concluded, is crippling the mission of education. It’s also undermining “the social, economic, and civic vitality of our nation’s future.”

The red herring is that the system that we need to worry about is “admissions”. It’s not. The fox in sheepskin clothing is (excluding only a few institutions) the whole U.S. system of higher education. And there is nothing new going on. But don’t just listen to me.

Here is one of the most astute observers and deepest thinkers that we have ever had on higher education.

“…advantage can…be taken of [students] by unscrupulous instructors and institutions…the student estate often does not grasp its own interests, and those who speak in its name are not always its friends…” From David Riesman’s 1980 book, On Higher Education: The Academic Enterprise in an Era of Rising Student Consumerism.

The real problem goes much deeper than admissions. One day the symptoms are admissions, the next it’s sports, the next it’s the law school. These are just symptoms. As a friend of mine likes to say “The fish stinks from the head.”

When a critical public good is delivered by opaque, unaccountable institutions, the scoundrels, the unscrupulous, the operators, will all find their way to the top. Add to that today’s faculty as described (in the 90’s) by another of our great thinkers, Clark Kerr, and you get what we now have.

Here is Clark Kerr on modern faculty.

“…There has been an increase in the influence in universities of the “new nomads”: teachers of the “me generation” who are very attentive to their “own work” but neglect academic citizenship…”

These quotes and more can be found on my blog inside-higher-ed.

Back to Riesman’s statement about “taking advantage”. At that time, universities were only doing what he referred to as catering to “…the ‘wants’ of students…which…are quite different from the “needs” of students”
Now, they go much further. They sell themselves as luxury items, while they improve on fooling “consumers”.

On my blog, there are documented academic tales that show, not only how prescient Riesman and Kerr were, but how this malignancy has spread throughout education, destroying the overall quality of K-12.

This must be changed.