Dumbing Down a College Education

[Guest guest]

Globe Newspaper

 

Dumbing Down a College Education

 

By Michael Kryzanek

January 12, 2006

 

There is a famous scene in the classic gross-out comedy ''Animal

House " where John Belushi (as Bluto Blutarsky) is urging his Delta

fraternity brothers to retaliate against a rival Greek house. After

receiving only lukewarm support, Belushi shouts, ''Did the Americans

give up after the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? " Everyone looked

incredulously at Belushi, but his mistaken oration had the proper

effect, the Deltas went out and staged the memorable destruction of

the homecoming parade.

 

Although ''Animal House " was an exaggerated view of fraternity life on

a college campus and Belushi was a caricature of the frat bozo -- who

with a .08 grade point average, somehow stayed in school -- real life

college may now be imitating the Hollywood version.

 

A recent study by the National Center for Education Statistics found

that only 31 percent of college graduates could read a ''complex book

and extrapolate from it. " Furthermore, the study found that far fewer

college graduates are leaving school with ''the skills needed to

comprehend routine data, such as reading a table about the

relationship between blood pressure and physical activity. "

 

What's most disturbing, according to Mark Schneider, the commissioner

of education statistics, is that, ''the assessment is not designed to

test your ability to understand Proust, but to test your ability to

read labels. "

 

 

I would be lying to you if I said that I was surprised by the data. My

more than 30 years of teaching in higher education at Bridgewater

State College and elsewhere, and frequent discussions with colleagues

from a wide range of colleges and universities, both public and

private, tell me the findings are accurate. That only 31 percent of

the college graduates qualified as ''proficient " in reading and

understanding information is sad but all too believable.

 

The United States is recognized as having the world's best system of

higher education, but that does not mean that the system is graduating

students who are prepared to understand the world or, more

importantly, have benefited from the wisdom of the greater thinkers,

writers, scientists, and historians while they were occupying space in

classrooms.

 

Behind the dismal data on college graduate literacy is the new reality

of higher education in America. Students today have little interest in

what past generations of college students accepted as an essential

education. Reading the literature of ''dead white guys, " studying the

relevancy of a 400-year-old historical event, and thinking about the

meaning of life's mysteries are not of great interest to a growing

number of college students.

 

Now, it's all about focusing on a career path, studying narrowly about

the skills required of that career path, and then crossing the stage

on graduation day. The only problem, as the literacy study shows, is

that this short-cut route to postgraduate adulthood leaves behind the

building blocks of an educated person.

 

No one really knows when this kind of discount college education got

its hold on American youth and why the old-fashioned essentials of

liberal arts training went out of vogue. Some point to the Internet as

the culprit, where all the answers are at the fingertips of the

college student, or the popular culture, where the ideas of Oprah and

Tom Cruise's blog musings have the same stature as Plato's ''Republic "

or Shakespeare's ''The Merchant of Venice. "

 

What is most disturbing about this college literacy study is that the

level of proficiency has declined over time, and the trend shows no

signs of abating. It seems that this country is stuck in a kind of

''knowledge black hole " that sucks out of college students the passion

to become truly educated men and women.

 

It may be instructive to remember that at the end of ''Animal House, "

as victorious John Belushi drives out into the sunset with a

dim-witted coed, we find out that Bluto became US senator. Is this

what we are headed for in the new age of college -- men and women of

power and influence who are semiliterate and who have little interest

in the benefits of a broad and serious education?

 

Michael Kryzanek is professor of political science at Bridgewater

State College. He can be reached at mkryzanek

© Copyright 2006 Globe Newspaper Company.

[Guest guest]

Right. But, are you blaming the " victim " ?

I was in a regular grocery store recently, going down the aisle picking up

items that I used to purchase, reading the ingredients, just to see what new

food science concoction had been added to the mix. ( I now shop for as

organically grown products as I can find.)

Amazing how much was to preserve, condition,color, maybe having genetically

altered ingredients (not labeled),oils that had no relation to their

natural origins. Add all of this to mercury dumbed down minds from shots,

amalgams, it is a wonder that any student these days can navigate with the

polluted bodies and brains engendered from today's food/medical complex?

They can't . Dr. Doris Rapp has evidence that they can't.

I have had personal experience , seeing a difference in a son after

chelation and changing the diet, removing mercury amalgams . Homeopathic

remedies helped to re-ballance him also.

IQ points were measured, his went up 14 points. Interesting. ng

 

 

-

" califpacific " <califpacific

 

Monday, January 16, 2006 8:27 AM

Dumbing Down a College Education

 

 

 

Globe Newspaper

 

Dumbing Down a College Education

 

By Michael Kryzanek

January 12, 2006

 

There is a famous scene in the classic gross-out comedy ''Animal

House " where John Belushi (as Bluto Blutarsky) is urging his Delta

fraternity brothers to retaliate against a rival Greek house. After

receiving only lukewarm support, Belushi shouts, ''Did the Americans

give up after the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? " Everyone looked

incredulously at Belushi, but his mistaken oration had the proper

effect, the Deltas went out and staged the memorable destruction of

the homecoming parade.

 

Although ''Animal House " was an exaggerated view of fraternity life on

a college campus and Belushi was a caricature of the frat bozo -- who

with a .08 grade point average, somehow stayed in school -- real life

college may now be imitating the Hollywood version.

 

A recent study by the National Center for Education Statistics found

that only 31 percent of college graduates could read a ''complex book

and extrapolate from it. " Furthermore, the study found that far fewer

college graduates are leaving school with ''the skills needed to

comprehend routine data, such as reading a table about the

relationship between blood pressure and physical activity. "

 

What's most disturbing, according to Mark Schneider, the commissioner

of education statistics, is that, ''the assessment is not designed to

test your ability to understand Proust, but to test your ability to

read labels. "

 

 

I would be lying to you if I said that I was surprised by the data. My

more than 30 years of teaching in higher education at Bridgewater

State College and elsewhere, and frequent discussions with colleagues

from a wide range of colleges and universities, both public and

private, tell me the findings are accurate. That only 31 percent of

the college graduates qualified as ''proficient " in reading and

understanding information is sad but all too believable.

 

The United States is recognized as having the world's best system of

higher education, but that does not mean that the system is graduating

students who are prepared to understand the world or, more

importantly, have benefited from the wisdom of the greater thinkers,

writers, scientists, and historians while they were occupying space in

classrooms.

 

Behind the dismal data on college graduate literacy is the new reality

of higher education in America. Students today have little interest in

what past generations of college students accepted as an essential

education. Reading the literature of ''dead white guys, " studying the

relevancy of a 400-year-old historical event, and thinking about the

meaning of life's mysteries are not of great interest to a growing

number of college students.