10 thoughts on “The American University”

1. When this is fixed, then we can be confident about the end of woke. The question is whether it will take a generation to replace existing teachers or if we can apply some Freidman to make the wrong people do the right thing. (And have the next generation of teachers have a normal ideological distribution rather than dominated by genocidal commies)

   1. Oh joy, oh rapture!

      1. Yeah, maybe it will bring some value back to degrees or create value that never really existed.

         1. Eliminate a whole raft of degrees that are meaningless and ridiculous

            1. Indeed. Start with any that don’t require basic, real science and math: Bio 1 with lab, physics 1 with lab, Chemistry 1 with lab, Calculus.

               Quit calling anything that doesn’t include these basic classes ‘science’.

            2. I took first year biology, chemistry, and physics, then genetics, vertebrate and invertebrate zoology, metallurgy, microbiology, then physical and cultural anthropology, an archaeology class, and even an early ecology class that wasn’t worth much. I flunked calculus, took a prep class for it, tried again and flunked again, and gave up on the advice of my advisor. I started putting together what I called an Asian Studies degree and learned to speak Japanese fairly well. Then my life went to shit and that was the end of school for me. I worked as a mechanic for a while, then computers took over my life (and all the while wrote and published SF).

2. The underlying cause seems to be student subsidies. When someone can get a degree in a field that is either not hiring or doesn’t pay well, and have a six figure student loan debt, that’s a problem. When the federal government guarantees that loan at taxpayer expense, it’s an even larger problem. When the university is guaranteed payment for degrees that are not only worthless, but counterproductive to the individual and the country, the incentives make the problem worse again.

   There are good fields of study worth paying for. Those fields being worth paying for, the university should guarantee the loan, not the taxpayer. Prices and overhead should drop rapidly. Though many would choose not to go to college, I don’t see that as a catastrophe. Just as I don’t see dropping out of high school as a catastrophe for those that refuse to learn.

   1. The underlying cause of the funding issue is Griggs vs. Duke Power. It made a simple aptitude test for a job illegal, forcing companies to use a degree as a proxy for competence.

      1. You’re right. Though I will say the one I mentioned is in a close second place.

         1. As day follows night. It’s a cascade of failure. Decent indoor jobs require a degree, so they jack up the cost as much as the market can bear, so politicians see an opportunity, round and round we go.

Comments are closed.