A Conservative's Lament

Depressing if true.

Murder in the Ivory Tower

Minerva among the Muses. Thinking panty raid?

What this study primarily demonstrates is that students really don’t learn very much in college: “45 percent of students did not demonstrate any significant improvement in learning during the first two years of college; 36 percent of students did not demonstrate any significant improvement in learning over four years of college.”

The study evaluates only critical thinking and reasoning skills. But the knowledge gains are even worse. Other studies suggest that the typical student at an Ivy League college actually graduates with less general knowledge than when he entered—he forgets more than he learns over the four years.

But notice that there is one bright spot. “Students majoring in liberal arts fields see significantly higher gains in critical thinking, complex reasoning, and writing skills over time than students in other fields of study."

The bad news is, the liberal arts are dying everywhere. They are being taken over or replaced by the social sciences.

So which discipline scores the lowest skills and knowledge gains over four years of college?

You guessed it: social sciences. “Students majoring in business, education, social work and communications showed the smallest gains.”

Another interesting finding: “Students who study by themselves for more hours each week gain more knowledge -- while those who spend more time studying in peer groups see diminishing gains.” So why is it that current educational methods insist on group work at all times and under all circumstances?

It almost seems as though there is a plan to destroy education.

And I suspect that is exactly right. Not a conscious conspiracy. But somehow (and I suspect affirmative action has at least something to do with it), relatively stupid people have been given the reins of the educational establishment, and they have set out over time to destroy anything in it that might reveal their stupidity. It’s a matter of instinctive self-preservation, I suppose; but the effects on the culture are bound to be devastating. They will kill what they do not understand.

ClassRealm

Here’s an idea that looks perfect for a grade six class of boys: doing the entire curriculum as a role-playing game. What a great way to generate enthusiasm.

And it brings up an important point. Why isn’t this the obvious thing to do? Why haven’t we long ago harnessed the same techniques that make role-playing games so popular to improve learning in the classroom? Schools and educational theorists seem to consistently miss out on this very important point: that education is and should be entertainment. If you do not have the students’ attention, nothing else is going to happen.

Fortunately, we have a vast body of knowledge about how to make things entertaining: from the people who put out popular magazines, novels, movies, music, toys, games, public speaking, salesmanship, and advertising. From the people who work in the circus, the amusement park, the theatre, the comics industry. From just about anybody who runs any business that must attract customers. Magazine publishers, for example, know exactly what they can put on their cover to boost sales.

Not only does the educational establishment ignore all this valuable information: they consciously scorn it. It is beneath them. Perhaps it is evil capitalism. There is a perverse idea that in order to be educational, a thing must be dry and dull.

Nothing at all could be further from the truth. Look at small animals at play; or small children, for that matter. They are learning, quite deliberately. All play is educational by nature. Tiger cubs play-pounce, learning to hunt. Little girls play with dolls, learning to mother. Boys compete to learn how to stay on a skateboard, or make a yoyo return.

This is a good rule of thumb: far from being at cross purposes, being entertaining and being educational are the same thing. If it is not entertaining, it is not educational.

And if everyone does not love to go to a school, this is proof that that school is failing. As most schools clearly are. The surest mark of educational success is retention rate: how many students stay on until graduation.