How America's Great University System Is Being Destroyed - Case Study Example

Education K-12 Reform Manpower shortage is a big problem in America at present. Because of the shortage of skilled and educated people in America, majority of the employment sectors in the country are importing manpower from overseas countries at the moment. For example, in healthcare sector, majority of the people working are from overseas countries like India. At the same time, the upcoming generation in America is not getting quality education. The current educational system in America is not catering the needs of the upcoming generation. Moreover, it is not adequate enough to cater the needs of the present employment sector. It is impossible for a country like America to develop properly without giving more emphasize to the educational needs of the upcoming generation. According to Noam Chomsky, a famous cognitive scientist, there are multiple definitions of an education, the traditional and the current. The traditional follows the ways of enlightenment period, which states that a teacher should create an environment that builds a foundation for creativity and inquisitiveness (Chomsky, 2014). American educational system seems to be following the traditional educational methods. Even then, it failed to develop curiosity and creativity in the minds of the students. The Oxford English Dictionary defines the word, curiosity as a strong desire to know or learn something. Although there is a definitive definition to the word in dictionaries, it means something different to everyone. Typically, intellectual curiosity is a major driving force for people to seek knowledge of and understand what is not yet known scientifically, and also in other disciplines of subject areas. Thus, the traditional definition of education should be re-examined to provide a more meaningful explanation for the current educational setting. The traditional educational model is imposed by the government. This is the basic education received in public schools that stifles student’s creativity in contrast to the ways of the enlightenment model used in higher education today which allows students to pursue their own educational freedom and allows them to take classes that correspond to everyday life or even more so there desired career. The new educational environment should encourage individuals to constantly seek deeper understanding, and to contribute the knowledge learned to human intelligence. In this paper, the ideals of great philosophers such as Socrates, Aristotle and many others are reviewed. Literature Review Aristotle and Education According to Aristotle, “Education is a function of the State, and is conducted, primarily at least, for the ends of the State. State - highest social institution which secures the highest goal or happiness of man”("Aristotle" 384-322 BC, 1996). Aristotle believed that one of the primary duties of the state is to provide education to all its citizens. In other words, Aristotle has realized the importance of education in the development of a nation. In his opinion, education provides many utilities to the states as well as to the individual. Another important point made by Aristotle about education is that education prepares people for some worthy activity (Davidson, 1900). In other words, education helps people to engage in productive activities. All non-productive activities of the people cannot be considered as the contribution of education. It should be noted that people with antisocial behaviours are normally engaged in non-productive activities. Majority of such people are uneducated or poorly educated. Criminal activities in America are presently increasing. Drug addiction, smoking and alcoholism like non-productive activities are increasing day by day among the Americans. All these problems have some connections with the lack of education or lack of quality education. Therefore, Aristotle’s arguments seem to be acceptable to all. Aristotle commented also about the importance of teaching. “In the Aristotelian teaching act, the teacher instructs a learner about some object, some body of knowledge, or some discipline. Teaching and learning are always about disciplined inquiry into some aspect of reality. The school should cultivate and develop each person's rationality” (Ornstein and Levine, 1981, p.112-113). The reality is changing periodically. Yesterday’s reality need not be a reality today. Today’s reality may not be a reality tomorrow. For example, thousands of years before, people believed that the sun was moving and earth remaining stationary. Later, this reality has changed and people assumed that the earth was moving while the sun remains stationary. Today, science says that both the earth and the sun are moving and nothing remains stationary. Who knows, whether this reality changes or not tomorrow? In any case, it is the duty of the teacher to help the students in recognising the present reality. American higher educational system seems to be not recognizing this fact. For example, second language acquisition is still not encouraged very much by the American educational system. Americans believe that the knowledge in English alone would help them to compete effectively in the present world. It should be noted that countries such as India and China are developing much rapidly than America at present. In fact, China has already pushed America to the second place in the list of world’s richest countries in terms of GDP growth. China and India like countries are giving more importance to second language acquisition and hence the students in these countries are capable of exploiting the opportunities in the English speaking countries. At the same time, Americans failed to exploit the opportunities in China or India because of their lack of knowledge in Hindi or Mandarin. In short, lack of importance given to the second language learning is a big problem in American educational sector at the moment. Socrates and Education According to Socrates people learn best by asking essential questions and testing tentative answers against reason and fact in a continual and virtuous circle of honest debate (Cookson, 2009). It is necessary for the current generation to take the above opinion of Socrates seriously. Knowledge is virtually bursting from all corners virtually in every second. It is difficult for a teacher to teach all such knowledge in the classrooms. Students should develop a capability to segregate good and bad knowledge. They should be able to analyze information critically before accepting it as fact or fiction. Otherwise, the great knowledge and communication tsunami of the modern century would bring more harm than good to the upcoming generation. American educational system is currently incapable of cultivating critical thinking in the minds of the students. American students are getting information from all corners because of the rapid technological developments and communication technologies in the country. At the same time, they are unable to segregate these information properly. In other world, lack of critical thinking rather than the unavailability of information are the major problem in the higher education sector in America. “If we harness them correctly, we can blend the best of our traditional intellectual linear culture—Socrates' wisdom of the 5th century BCE—with the current digital culture, creating a new learning and intellectual environment consistent with the cognitive and expressive demands of the 21st century” (Cookson, 2009). Opinions of other scholars about current American educational system Howard Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences is often misinterpreted by many scholars. “Some have said that Howard Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences assumes that all children are gifted and therefore we do not want any program for gifted. However, he never said anything like this” (Henshon, 2006, p.191). In fact, the multiple intelligence theory says that: We are all able to know the world through language, logical-mathematical analysis, spatial representation, musical thinking, the use of the body to solve problems or to make things, an understanding of other individuals, and an understanding of ourselves. Where individuals differ is in the strength of these intelligences - the so-called profile of intelligences -and in the ways in which such intelligences are invoked and combined to carry out different tasks, solve diverse problems, and progress in various domains (Lane, n.d.). No two individuals are alike physically as well as mentally. A child capable of performing better in Mathematics may face problems while learning science topics. There are only few children who are capable of learning all the subjects equally well. Therefore, it is logical to conclude that “Gardner's conclusions relating to the existence of more than one or two intelligences are valid” (Duval & Mark, 1994). The present American educational system is incapable of exploiting the multiple intelligence domains of the students. Instead of making all-rounders, the current educational system develops specialists. In other words, a student coming out from an American medical college is capable of excelling only in the medical profession. He is unable to excel in professions such as administration even if he has the hidden potential for excelling in in that profession. If he wants to unveil his potentials in administration of business management, he needs to attend an MBA course additionally since medical course gave him only the knowledge about the medical profession. Because of these problems, an American educated medical practitioner may struggle to perform any jobs other than the jobs related to medicine. According to Chomsky (2014), higher education costs in America are extremely high compared to that in other countries. He has pointed out that higher education is mostly free in many prominent countries such as Finland, Germany, and Mexico. He has mentioned that higher education was almost free in America in the 40s and 50s. America is already struggling from the problems of recent financial crisis. Under such circumstances, higher education is a distant dream for many of the Americans at present. It is necessary for America to reduce the higher education cost as much as possible or make this education absolutely free. Americans should realize that the competitive power of the upcoming generation will be increased when they get enough opportunities to get higher education. Even a poor country like Mexico is capable of providing free higher education to its upcoming generation. Under such circumstances, it is a shame for a wealthy country like America to keep the higher education costs unbearable to the people. According to Valerie Strauss (2013), the current grading system in the educational sector is not helping the quality of education very much in America. She has pointed out that teachers were forced to give passing grades to all students irrespective of their performances in the examination because of the instructions from the institutional head or the government. It was about this time that I was called down to the principal’s office with a terse e-mail that read only, “I need to speak with you.” Clueless, I took down my grade sheets, communication logs, lesson plans, and sat down as an adult still summoned down to the principal’s office. “I need to talk to you about these students.” She handed me a list of about 10 students, all of whom had D’s or F’s. As she brought up each one, I walked her through my grade sheets that showed not low scores but a failure to turn in work—a lack of responsibility. I showed her my tutoring logs, my letters to parents, only to be interrogated further. Eventually, the meeting came down to two quotes that I will forever remember as the defining slogans for public education: “They are not allowed to fail.” “If they have D’s or F’s, there is something that you are not doing for them (Strauss, 2013). Current educational system in America is putting the entire blame on the shoulders of the teacher when a student fails to achieve the desired grade. In order to avoid such unethical blames, many of the present teachers in America are giving passing grades to all students irrespective of their poor performances in the examination. Students and their parents have fewer roles in American education at present. Even if the parents do not care or the student does not obey the instructions of the teacher, the entire blame for the poor performances of the students in their examination rests on the shoulder of the teacher. Conclusions To conclude, America’s educational system is facing many problems at the moment. It gives fewer responsibilities to the students and the parents and more responsibilities to the teachers. The coordination of students, parents and the teachers are necessary for the delivery of quality education to the children of America. The current educational system is constructing specialists rather than all-rounders. It is necessary to restructure current educational system to make sure that the students coming out from the higher education colleges are capable of meeting all personal, professional and social challenges. References Aristotle (384-322 BC) (1996). " The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy Retrieved from http://www.utm.edu/research/iep/a/aristotl.htm. Cookson, P.W. (2009). Teaching for the 21st Century. What Would Socrates Say? Educational Leadership, September 2009 | Volume 67 | Number 1 Pages 8-14 Chomsky, N. (2014). Chomsky: How America's Great University System Is Being Destroyed. Retrieved from http://www.alternet.org/corporate-accountability-and-workplace/chomsky-how-americas-great-university-system-getting Duval, J., & Mark, N. (1994). The Pawlet Project: Applications of Howard Gardner's Multiple Intelligence Theory in a Rural Vermont Elementary School. Retrieved from https://archive.org/stream/ERIC_ED383479/ERIC_ED383479_djvu.txt Davidson, T. (1900). Aristotle and the ancient education ideals. New York: Charles Scribner's. Henshon, S.E. (2006). The Evolution of Creativity, Giftedness, and Multiple Intelligences: An Interview with Ellen Winner and Howard Gardner. Roeper Review. Summer 2006. Vol 28. No.4 Lane, C. (n.d.). Multiple Intelligences. Retrieved from http://www.tecweb.org/styles/gardner.html Ornstein, A.C. & Levine, D.U. (1981). An introduction to the foundations of education ( 2nd ed.) Boston: Houghton Mifflin. Strauss, V (2013). I would love to teach. The Washington Post. December 31, 2013 Stewart V. (2007). Educational Leadership. The Prepared Graduate. April 2007 | Volume 64 Number 7. Pages 8-14.  Read More