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Many Colleges Fail to Improve Critical-Thinking Skills: WSJ (wsj.com)
Freshmen and seniors at about 200 colleges across the U.S. take a little-known test every year to measure how much better they get at learning to think. The results are discouraging. From a report: At more than half of schools, at least a third of seniors were unable to make a cohesive argument, assess the quality of evidence in a document or interpret data in a table (Editor's note: the link might be paywalled; alternative source), The Wall Street Journal found after reviewing the latest results from dozens of public colleges and universities that gave the exam between 2013 and 2016. At some of the most prestigious flagship universities, test results indicate the average graduate shows little or no improvement in critical thinking over four years. Some of the biggest gains occur at smaller colleges where students are less accomplished at arrival but soak up a rigorous, interdisciplinary curriculum.
Translation: The quality of the bachelors degree is defined by the fact that it is now the new high school diploma.
Oh, you wanted a quality education instead of just a piece of paper to hang on the wall? Then shell out another $100K for the masters degree.
Gotta love capitalism.
It's the exact opposite of capitalism on display. The federal government has thrown so much (taxpayer) money at almost any student who asks for it that the colleges have dumbed down to be able to accept and pass them all in order to grab all the subsidy money.
Been to a college class lately?
I sometimes wonder how interesting it would be to 'audit' some of the freshman level sociology and 'soapbox' courses as an adult student, so that the teachers wouldn't have exclusive access to these earnest little tabula-rasa sponges to deliver their anti-white, anti-western, anti-male screed unobjected. I have to imagine they wouldn't like having another adult in the room (especially one not inclined to their flavor of kool aide) at ALL.
Then I realized that
1) raising ANY objections, no matter how carefully justified and logical, would simply cater to their message (look, the old white male doesn't want me teaching you this) and, more importantly
2) I simply don't give that much of a shit.
I still may do it just for entertainment, once I'm retired - many local colleges let seniors audit courses for free.
-Styopa