(Host) As politicians debate the cost of college and cheating scandals
rock many of the nation’s campuses, teacher, historian, and commentator
Vic Henningsen considers our changing perceptions of the importance of
higher education.
(Henningsen) At a higher education conference
this summer, former PBS education correspondent John Merrow painted a
dismal picture of universities in which students are customers and the
customer is always right, a circumstance made more difficult by the
growing number of students unprepared for college work. The resulting
dumbing down was best exemplified by a professor who told Merrow
homework was optional and that he’d be fired if he held students to
higher standards. To Merrow’s horror, the university president agreed.
It’s
all about retention – doing everything possible to make sure that the
largest number of students who enter a university actually graduate.
Particularly in public universities, crucial state funding depends upon
retention figures.
This is an example of the growing
commodification of higher education. "What do you want," asked my
college dean years ago, "an education or a degree?" In those days the
answer seemed obvious. But Americans increasingly view a college
education, not as an investment, but as a credential to be secured as
painlessly as possible. "After all," said one of my students when I was
teaching at Harvard, "It’s not what I’m getting here, it’s what people
think I’m getting that matters." Another put it more cynically to a
colleague, "Let’s face it, the A students become teachers and the B
students work for the C students." In this view, a little learning isn’t
a dangerous thing; it’s actually profitable.
And so, in too
many of our colleges and universities, we see students pretending to
learn from teachers pretending to teach. For example last spring at
Harvard 125 students in a government course were implicated in the
largest cheating scandal in the university’s history, because both
professor and students were quite sloppy about procedures regarding
academic integrity.
But the larger point, as Megan McCardle
recently pointed out in Newsweek, is that people seem willing to bend
the rules when they seek a credential. They wouldn’t, if they believed
that the skills they gained in college really mattered and not having
them would hamper their chances in life, but they don’t see it that way.
This is dispiriting to one who’s made a life in teaching. I
really do believe I’m teaching ideas and ways of thinking and acting
that enrich one’s life – and not just materially. Dr. Johnson said it
best, that such study enables one "a little better to enjoy life or a
little better to endure it." Sounds simple enough, but it isn’t when you
think about it, which is, after all, the point.
But at times I
resort to the self-interest argument myself. "Look," I tell my students,
"Either you learn how to do this or you’re always going to be under the
power of those who did."
Perhaps that makes me part of the
problem too. But in the end, one thing’s for certain. When we treat
higher education purely as a commodity, and encourage students to go
into ruinous debt to acquire it, we’re in trouble.