Education in America

HIGHER EDUCATION IN AMERICA: IT’S NOW JUST A BUSINESS

My education consists of 200 semester credits from 6 colleges/universities in three states covering the last four decades. During this time I have stealthily studied the education system, curriculums, teachers, syllabuses, counselors, textbooks, test types and methods, grading, transfer credits, graduation requirements, homework requirements, class availability, fellow students and how all this fits into the actual work place. The result is that our education system is need of major overhaul.

INTERESTING HISTORY

In 1944 the government initiated the GI Bill which was thought would be taken advantage of by a small portion of the veterans. Veterans of WW II and Korea went to college in droves stunning the government and higher education. The universities cried foul because they were intended for the privileged few and the Heinz 57 offspring would bring down the elite status of the universities who receive money from the rich and lower the grade averages. Lo and behold, the average GI’s grades were better than the rich because the rich spent their time in school partying and stubbing their noses at the general populace.

Unable to circumvent the bill, they decided if they had to educate the average person then they would do so to make them in the image of the wealthy. The requirements for degrees include less useful knowledge, i.e. major, and more classes dealing with refinement based on some imaginary whole. So the graduates knew less about their area of expertise making them less useful in their profession.

This is the big problem I have noticed today. An engineer will complete 45 semester credits in the major and 75 credits in other education like Eastern European art appreciation, home economics, oceanography, music studies, theater appreciation and many other classes intended to allow one to turn their nose up at others less educated.

They want to make the rest of us Kennedys and it is impairing the evolution of business and our ability to survive in world business today. Quite frankly, the well-rounded theory is mass manipulation crap.

The concept of educating students more in their major so they can perform better in the workplace has never been considered applicable. For example, instead of hiring one person with education in both mechanical and metallurgical engineering education, American management has to hire two, which depletes the resources of engineers. If the young engineer took 40 semester credits in mechanical engineering and 40 in metallurgical engineering, the remainder would be refining the person and the young engineer would have a better understanding of the whole of engineering and be more valuable. Along with this, mathematics could be taught as part of and better directed to engineering in engineering classes, not taught separately.

All colleges today follow the archaic path of yore and are not in touch with the changing needs of the companies that hire their graduates or global changes. They are all terrified of anything other than linear prescribed passé thought.

THE EDUCATIONAL WOMB

One of the really big problems in American education is teachers who have no work experience in the fields they teach and it shows like Las Vegas at night. They cannot show how what they are teaching is applicable to your life, your job or anything else. Typically they go to college, go to college, go to college and then teach. Some go to college then get a job and find out that the company actually expects results. They have to produce something. This terrifies them and they go back to college to teach.

When they stand in front of the class and tell you all you have to do is this, and this and this and life will be sweet and they have never done this themselves the student will not be prepared for life outside college.

This is not true in some majors. All my instructors in law and criminology have decades of experience in their fields and I could tell the difference from those in other fields who did not have such experience. The University of Phoenix requires experience in each field.

Another big problem is that educators are very poor managers. The department chairs do not know how to manage the teachers or the support staff and the teachers do not know how to manage because none or very few have been in management out in the work place. Teachers are underpaid, lack resources and under appreciated and are not backed by the college or department chairs. Let me give some examples of poor department chairs and teachers from Weber State University and Salt Lake Community College as examples, the last four decades:

· Textbooks not being ordered until semester has already started.
· Not enough textbooks ordered.
· Wrong textbooks ordered.
· Ordered revised textbooks that change 2 paragraphs from the old one that cost 30% more.
· Syllabus not ready until weeks into the semester.
· Instructors not showing up for class.
· When instructors are no show, students not notified, sit in class for an hour before deciding the hell with it.
· Teach one thing, test on another.
· Not prepared to teach topics for the class that day.
· Favoritism in grading.
· Do not know until the last minute what classes to teach for each semester in advance so students can plan.
· Class test and homework requirements the same for 100 level classes as 400 level classes. Graduation credits subsequently not given for same work in 100/200 level classes as 400 level classes.
· Do not clearly outline test material for next test.
· Teach what to think, not how to think or to push the envelope.
· Have no experience in subject of class they are teaching.
· Talk down to the students. Students not allowed to express opinions/ideas.

If teachers are going to gripe in the media, they should make sure that they are teaching up to par. I have studied them in four decades.

EDUCATING FOREIGNERS FOR PROFIT, LETTING AMERICANS DOWN

According to the majority of Americans, America has always bent over backwards to educate those from other countries that pay high out of state tuitions, while doing everything it can to keep Americans out of college and now it has come back to bite us in the ass. They use our education against us in a thousand ways.

As a quality assurance expert I know that the quality of products from other countries far exceeds ours. Their engineers for example are allowed more freedom to engineer than ours. They are listened to. Ours are not. Their engineers spend more education time on engineering while ours study the arts. Another example is that American Bar Association and related state bar associations have done everything possible to keep woman, minorities and average income day working Americans out of the law profession. They let a few in to appease the public.

Only 25% of Americans have an associate degrees or higher education yet we have more colleges and trade schools than any country in the world. Why is this so? Because the American and State college education systems (Like Weber State University) exhibits these problems;

· 1-Spends too much time trying to make every student a Kennedy.
· 2-Cost too much.
· 3-Teaches what to think, not how to think.
· 4-Does not have set standards that are real, applicable to industry.
· 5-Every state and the colleges within each state do what they want.
· 6-Tuition, parking, insurance, associations, parking tickets cost too much.
· 7-Teachers do not have experience in that they teach, cannot answer student’s questions or just make up answers.
· 8-Have no understanding on what education is really applicable to any profession/trade.
· 9-Have poor management by those who have no outside management experience.
· 10-Have too many womb doctors. Hide in the educational womb.

· 11-Does not know how to teach application of knowledge.
· 12-Provide poor counseling to students.
· 13-Does not know how to transfer credits from other colleges. No full faith and credit. Make students take same classes over to increase revenue. Big reason for dropping put.
· 14-Each college thinks it is the Harvard of education.
· 15-Are not managed on the basis of educating the next generation. It is only a business run for profit.
· 16-Poor teacher and staff pay.
· 17-Poor training of teachers and staff.
· 18-Hire by favoritism and nepotism.
· 19-Have curriculums that are old school.
· 20-Segregates rich from non-rich.
· 21-Poor class availability.
· 22-Does not allow or make changes from outside objective criticism.
· 23-Are far too political.
· 24-Terrified of political/religious topics and pressure.
· 25-Too many decisions/changes never made due to committees that never accomplish anything and go on to the end of time.
· 26-No college in America knows how to teach application of math. Algebra will never be used again. Big reason for dropping out. Done a 30 year study.
· 27-Does not sufficiently use modern technology, videotapes etc. in the classrooms.
· 28-General philosophy of education is old school.
· 29-Cannot clearly define 100, 200, 300, 400 level class requirements.
· 30-Each teacher teaches how he or she likes, no continuity. (See above)
· 31-Change textbooks each semester to get kick backs from book sales.
· 32-Teachers not prepared.
· 33-Teach one thing, test on another.
· 34-Does not listen to students.
· 35-Unfair grading, favoritism.
· 36-No continuity in graduation requirements, favoritism. No contracts on graduation requirements between students and college.
· 37-Curriculums too constraining. Not individualized.
· 38-Foreign language requirement a waste of time. Will not use the rest of ones life. Big reason for dropping out. Done a 30 year study.
· 39-Have curriculums only on nights or days, which keeps millions from attending.
· 40-18-week semesters, 16-week semesters, 14-week quarters, 12-week quarters, 10-week quarters. Semesters, quarters, huh?

· 41-No nation-wide standards. No governing entity. Nowhere to go to get help.
· 42-Teachers do not know how to make education fun/interesting/stimulating.
· 43-Keeps military personnel from graduating, being promoted. Huge impact on military families today.
· 44-Helps promote age discrimination in employment.
· 45-Sells student information to book/magazine/credit card companies.
· 46-Raises the cost of products manufactured in U.S. causing layoffs.
· 47-Programs geared to young adults not older experienced adults who have already graduated from HKU (HARD KNOCKS UNIVERSITY).

Many recent reports state that there is no room for more students in our colleges because we have no money and have to cut back on classes. The cost is escalating at an alarming rate. So pitiful we will not educate our own. This is poor management from both those who cut the budgets and those who run the colleges. If a state had management that did not pay $5.00 for a roll of toilet paper that was worth $.50 it would have the money. If we did not educate the world that will use it against us later, we would have room for Americans in college. If we did not have the problems listed above, more Americans would go to college and our country would be stronger.
(THIS TOPIC 15% COMPLETE AS OF 1-24-03)

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