This week's article summary is Has Higher Education in the US Lost Its Way? and it's an apt follow-up to last week's article Happiness and Success that focused on the disconnect between what parents say they want for their kids (happiness) and the message they too often send to their kids (the better college you attend, the better job you get, the more successful you’ll be, and success leads to happiness).
This week’s summary calls this the difference between viewing college as a ‘transactional’ endeavor, i.e., ‘I go to college to get a high-paying job after graduation’ versus a ‘transformational’ one, i.e., ‘I attend college to learn how to think, better communicate, and mature physically, intellectually, and social-emotionally.’
The article below explains that as colleges today market themselves more from a transactional angle, they have fallen prey to mission sprawl in that they promise many different things to many different people. The problem with this is it dilutes a school’s reason for existing. It reminds me of the ancient Greek parable about the hedgehog (that can do one big thing) and the fox (that can do many things); often it’s best to stay true to what you can do well.
The past two articles remind me of why I so prefer working in an elementary independent school where we’re able to remain laser focused on our mission: We cherish childhood as we develop in our students a strong academic and character foundation they will use in middle school and beyond.
Our focus is clearly transformational, not transactional.
Joe
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For their book “The Real World of College,” Wendy Fischman and Howard Gardner spent five years visiting 10 college campuses, carrying out many interviews with students, alumni, faculty, administrators, parents, trustees, and others. What they found challenged characterizations in the media: Students are not preoccupied by political correctness, free speech, or even the cost of college. They are most concerned about their GPA and their resumes; they see jobs and earning potential as more important than learning. Many say they face mental health challenges, fear that they don’t belong, and feel a deep sense of alienation.
The authors’ regretful conclusion: Many, perhaps most, U.S. colleges have lost — or lost sight of — their principal reason for being. “By virtue of the many activities available on campus, motivations for attending college, often unhelpful expectations generated in secondary school, and the myriad of mixed messages on traditional media and social media,” the authors write in the book’s introduction, “colleges are overwhelmed by mission sprawl.” They contend that to remedy this, schools must focus sharply on their core educational mission.
Below is a summary of the Q and A we had with the authors:
How did you decide to embark on this comprehensive study of the state of higher education?
For a quarter of a century, both of us have been studying the nature of good work (see thegoodproject.org). When we worked with young people, we found that they typically knew what good work was and admired it from afar. But they felt that they could not afford to do good work, because if they behaved properly, they would be scooped by peers who cut corners. Good work was “for later” in life, after success had been assured.
Of course, this disturbed us.
What was the most unexpected thing you learned?
First, students have similar goals and concerns and even use the same words to describe their experiences. We find few, if any, differences based on background or where they currently attend school. Second, what you read about in the news is not on the minds of most students — free speech, political correctness, and even the cost of college rarely came up. Rather it was issues of mental health, and a sense of belonging or alienation. The exceptions to the point about free speech occurred right before or after a controversial speaker came to campus. We have continued to interview students after our study was completed — and it is true that at select schools, students sometimes feel silenced, afraid to say what they think. They are afraid that they will be misinterpreted, judged, and cancelled. We find that, on the whole, students are uncomfortable discussing ethical issues.
In terms of the cost of college, this rarely came up organically as a topic of concern among students (adults assume that this is more of a concern for students). The cost of college was indeed a determining factor for students in deciding where to enroll (once they received their acceptances and learned about financial assistance decisions), but once they were in college, it did not seem to come up much for them. The only exception is when some students talked about tension with students from different socioeconomic backgrounds.
Lastly: the misalignment between students and parents on the one hand, and faculty and administrators on the other. It is striking that students are mostly in agreement with the adults with whom most of them do not see on a daily basis, whereas they differ greatly from those with whom they are in contact. For example: the bulk of students are transactional (they see college as a means to an end) while almost all faculty and administrators are transformational (they see college as an opportunity to reflect, grow, and possibly change).
Your study focuses heavily on nonvocational higher education, a sector associated with general education and the liberal arts. Why did you choose to focus on these schools, and what is the use of this type of education in the 21st century?
The genius of American education has been the college — an institution which purports to present a broad general education, giving students the knowledge and understandings that will serve them no matter what work they do. This form of education is vital for any democratic society. Alas, this form of education is in jeopardy in this country, largely because of the signals given by many parents, many teachers, and the broader society. We believe it would be tragic should this tradition be undermined. We have no objection to vocational education. However, if a student chooses a liberal arts and science school or program, they ought not to be focused simply on jobs or vocation. Note that all over the world, other countries are trying to implement liberal arts education. They admire what our country risks losing.
You propose two general approaches to improve nonvocational higher education: onboarding and intertwining. Can you describe these terms?
Onboarding is the concept we use to describe how to get all students aligned with the goal of the college or university, higher learning. From the first interaction on campus — whether this be at an admissions tour, orientation, or the first day of class, the mission of the institution needs to be clearly conveyed. Too often, students (and their parents) know more about internships, jobs after college, study abroad programs, residence and dining halls, and the gyms on campus.
What are the biggest challenges facing schools and students today?
Unfortunately, there are many challenges. For students, the two main challenges they speak about are mental health (now deemed a “crisis”) and lack of belonging. We also see other challenges for students, mainly the preoccupation with achieving “external measures of success” (grades, acceptances, jobs) over learning. In other words, students feel it is more important to get an A or to build their resume to get a particular job than it is to be exposed to new, different, or challenging content material — or even to do their own work (cheating is rampant on the college campus and by all accounts has intensified post-COVID because of online tests and exams). This “uber transactionality” has been instilled in students early on their education. Therefore, some of the biggest challenges colleges face is not with just college itself, but also with the high schools and parents where these students come from. In terms of the institution, challenges include: misalignment between faculty and administrators and the “customer,” prioritizing the mission of higher education (and not the fancy buildings or athletic departments on campus), and justifying the value of higher education to students and their parents who worry about their “return on investment” (the number of college students is declining, as is the number of male students).
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