Obama's Ding Dong Dumb Down Schools

"Many employers can attest, as college instructors will too if they're being frank, that  many college graduates can barely construct a coherent paragraph and many have precious little knowledge of the world—the natural world, the social world, the historical world, or the cultural world. That is a tragedy for the graduates, but also for society: Civic life suffers when people have severely limited knowledge of the world to bring to political or moral discussions", states Jonathan Jacobs, Director of the Institute for Criminal Justice Ethics and Chairman at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, New York, NY.

"To see the effect of these trends, simply ask a few 15-year-olds, 19-year-olds or 22-year-olds some basic, non-tricky questions from non-esoteric knowledge categories (history, biology, current events, literature, geography, mathematics, grammar). See what the responses are. Ask these young people to describe the basic institutions of American government, or how a case makes its way to the Supreme Court or what "habeas corpus" means. The point isn't to embarrass them, but to wake up the rest of us to how little students have been expected to know even about the political and legal order in which they live."

To flesh out to define some problems in the education system, I can speak to this issue from my own personal experience. After starting up three corporations in the Los Angeles, CA area with million of dollars in sales and hiring upwards to one hundred employees, many of them college graduates, I concur with Jonathan Jacobs that a majority had severely limited knowledge of the world and in no small way due to college courses taught by inept, myopic, liberal biased instructors.

I recall, in particular, one painful search for a General Sales Manager. My ideal candidate's specifications were a minimum 4 year college degree, field sales experience, sales training skills, verbal and writing skills and basic business mathematics required. I advertised in the well-read Sunday Los Angeles Times, at the time, San Fernando Valley News, and local newspapers. I also worked with two well-known employment agencies too. I was willing to put the money up to search, locate and identify the right candidate offering a generous pay package and company benefits too. After a weekend newspaper blitz, I would receive over one hundred resumes mailed in per week. You would be amazed on what was sent in as professional letters and resumes. Sad. This search labored on for over four weeks as I culled the names down to a few likely prospects to interview.

As the pick narrowed down to a few final candidates, two MBA's were in that mix too. I laughingly look back as they came in for their call-back interviews. The MBA, by the way, is not a professional designation like a PhD or an MD; when an MBA is after your name, it just looks like  trying too hard to impress people. Their boastful egos certainly preceded their own high opinions of their immense potential value offered with their "M-B-A's".

In the final negotiations both candidates were thoroughly satisfied with my total compensation package; but, both felt that their three letters titles "entitled" them  for the right to ask for a cut of the company profits too as if they were owners. They exhibited total ignorance in that which they had no right to ask for something that did not belong to them. They had up to their point of college graduation no real world, business management-ownership experience - simply put, they never had skin in the game either or experienced real world consequences of investing one's own money with reward-risk outcomes. It all just becomes one more computer simulation model in business school without any real negative consequences with the collegiate advantage to just walk away when the semester is done.

McDonald's burgers, fries & cold drinks.Similiarly, some view fictional hour-long TV dramas as representing a real set of difficulties, offering pat solutions and solving all problems between the opening titles and the closing credits--so it's no surprise to see a 'McDonald's Generation' who demands 'instant gratification' with fast-service, quality food and timely delivery and expects, of course, life to yield the same immediate results too.

What life lesson were they missing? How about the basic primal fear for survival is no game?--to patiently strive further beyond the point of others in order to succeed while knowing the high probability of failure still exists--"It ain't over until the fat lady sings.", as Yogi Berra so elegantly put it.

Coincidently I hired another MBA graduate who measured high in testing, had the sales experience and interviewed well. He eventually revealed miserable leadership skills to motivate the outside sales force and an inability to plan sales efforts or effectively achieve goals. One solid criticism was he proved out to be an ill-equipped thinker to independently originate ideas from his gut level or draw down from past experiences to navigate uncharted areas. Our wide breadth product line was sold to a diverse customer base such as: aerospace, electronics, pharmaceuticals, health care, biomedical, automotive, food processing, warehousing and transportation as well as government and municipalities. There was virtually no limitations on who, what or where which left everything to his imagination, the missing quality of that Sales Manager. Bottom-line, the sales did not grow and as my first sales manager Wes Clemens always said still applies: "Sales talks, bullshit walks."

So, for today's students, "the primary concern shouldn't be how American students rank in international science and math scores (though that is certainly relevant). It is whether the United States can be a prosperous, pluralistic democracy if higher education fails to require students to think, inquire and explain."

Kim Brooks, a graduate of the prestigious Iowa Writers' Workshop at the University of Iowa queried, "I wonder at times, is it even worth it? Do students really need to learn to write?" In Her timely Salon article entitled, "Death to High School English", she certainly addressed the principles to think, inquire and explain. As Kim Brooks mused about that subject she said, "I bounced the question off another friend, Amelia Shapiro, a longtime writing tutor and composition professor who now directs support services at a university in Hawaii."

“I hate that fucking question,” Amelia replies. “I hear it all the time and I hate it. No one asks this question about calculus, but who uses calculus besides math majors? If the question’s going to be asked about writing it should be asked about every subject. Even students who aren’t going to stay in college need to know how to write. We’ve all gotten emails or cover letters where we’ve judged people based on the writing. It’s not an essay but it’s still communication and people fail at it all the time in profound and meaningful ways.”

When Kim asked Amelia why she thinks there’s such resistance to prioritizing and teaching writing, given its numerous applications, given its overlap with critical thinking skills, analytical skills, basic communication skills, she hesitates for a moment, then answers in three words: “It’s not fun.”

[Kim agreed saying] True, but then, teaching (and for that matter, learning) isn’t always fun. Changing my kid’s dirty diapers isn’t fun. Dragging my fat ass onto a treadmill isn’t fun. Helping my grandmother “fix” her computer isn’t fun. Sometimes we do things not because they’re fun but because they’re important."

Jonathan Jacobs says, "The U.S. faces serious challenges; education should be serious and challenging. The cost to America of failing to reverse the trend toward trivializing education will be more than just economic. It will be reflected in social friction, coarsened politics, failed and foolish policies, and a steady decline in the concern to do anything to reverse the rot."