First a disclaimer: I am a physics professor - so I am kind of part of the “system”. There, that is out of the way.

Now, a few questions/statements:

1) What is the purpose of college? Why do students go to college? For most of these students, the reason is: to get a job. I don’t think this is the original intent and purpose of college. For many majors (I won’t say which) it seems that college is just another “hoop” to jump through. It is kind of like obedience training although I am not sure what they are being trained for.

2) What should college be like? College should be a time for scholarly learning. Not a time for quickly memorizing and forgetting a list of “facts”. I think part of the problem is that many aspects of college have been used to make students do what is good for them. For example: a particular college in our university is known for having attendance as a part of students’ grades. Why is this? I think the intent is that if the students don’t go to class, then they won’t learn. But does this really help?

3) On Lockhart’s Lament, I think he made some really good points about the education process. At first the comparison between math and art was a little difficult for me, but the more I think about it the more I tend to agree with him. I hate to say this, but it may be true that most people don’t need to understand algebra (waiting for lighting from the math-gods). Maybe we have just pushed this because we think it is good for them.

4) Do we force students to eat broccoli? I make my kids taste broccoli. I make them get some exercise. I don’t let them watch TV all day. These are things that I do because they are kids. Should we treat college students as kids? I am not sure. Maybe?

5) What do I see as the ideal college experience? College should be a place that is a community of learners. Faculty and students working together to both learn. We would all eat flowers and poop butterflies.

Tags: rant