Atlantic Monthly Article on Faculty Concerns About High Graduation Rates

Here is the link, followed by my comment.

http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2013/12/we-are-creating-walmarts-of-higher-education/282619/

(The article is good – and shocking – especially the part about some state schools getting rid of history courses.  State schools?  Is this becoming a vicious circle?  Uneducated politicians (probably with degrees, though) deciding not to educate?  Whatever happened to Jefferson and his silly ideas about democracy needing educated citizens?  I don’t think he was just talking about learning C++.)

“Much of this article is good and, from my experience as a math professor, I agree with those parts.
But…
“Dumbing down”?  Did I hear that right? “dumbing down”? As if higher education has not already been dumbed down?  Here is just one example of the obvious evidence.  A high shcool student recently asked me if college calculus really was a lot easier than AP calculus. That is what his friends at the U. of Missouri told him.  I said, “probably so”.  Then I pointed out to him that AP calculus had already been dumbed down.  (See my posts in the category “AP Courses” on my blog www.inside-higher-ed.com.)

If they do “dumb down” FURTHER, we can stop worrying about college degrees not being better than high school degrees.  Much of higher education, like a tectonic plate, will have subducted below high school education, causing an even larger rift between the well -educated (and well-payed) and the only-degreed (and poorly paid).

Just one more thing.  Did I read “…subtle pressure to pass student…”?  Subtle?  Just read my first hand account “A Tale Out of School” on my blog.  Subtle, indeed.”