CBS News published an article about College Students not learning in college. A study, following students over the course of several years, concluded that students were not improving on an assessment. Queue the worried concern and the sudden desire for a “No College Student Left Behind” and so on. There are so many issues with both the study and the article, I am not even sure where to start.
How about assessment tests? I am good at standardized tests. The first time I took the TCAP (Tennessee’s version of the test that makes sure you are at least “high school” level) I made it into the 99th percentile with a little Advanced indicator in every subject. Meaning I scored a perfect score. In the ninth grade. I was given a “pass” to never have to take the test again. I shrugged and thought nothing of it. Until my senior year, when due to a clerical error I was scheduled to retake the test (they filed my scores under the wrong name). I showed up with a note for the proctor to explain why I wouldn’t be taking the test (I had helped the guidance councilor find my scores) to discover a room with about 50 students in it. All of them stressed, worried and clearly not at their best. A passing TCAP is required to graduate. All of these seniors were on at minimum their fourth try to pass the test. (A 50% or proficient score was required.) In the room were several people I knew. They weren’t dumb, or idiots, or even trouble makers. They were spazzes though. At that moment I became very aware of one very important difference between me and these people about to take this test. Tests don’t bother me. I am good at figuring out the answer if I don’t know it. I am good at looking at the 4 choices and picking the correct one by process of elimination. If I get a wrong answer, oh well, I know I will get enough right answers that a few wrong ones won’t matter.
My point is that a standardized test is a terrible way to gauge knowledge of a subject. Some people just suck at taking tests.
Can you name all 50 states? Can you recall the Bill of Rights? Can you name the first 10 Elements on the Periodic Table of Elements? Can you recite any 14 lines of Shakespeare correctly? Can you recite any 14 lines of Poe correctly? Do you remember the Pythagorean Theorem? Do you recall the chemical makeup of salt?
As a video game developer, *none* of these bits of information are vitally important to the day to day job I do. And my job requires all kinds of weird knowledge. But at various points in my history I was forced, usually *wildly* unwillingly to memorize all of that information. To what point and purpose? I am still not sure. The important thing to me is that I *know* where to find this information. I understand how to look at the formula and get to the solution. I understand the importance of cadence, rhyme, and couplets to Shakespeare. I understand the importance of the Bill of Rights. I understand Geography and can recognize a state as belonging to the United States. Again, I can look at something and generally managed to figure out how it works or why it is important.
Point number 2, memorization and regurgitation is NOT learning. It’s a temporary measure to attempt to remember something. It does not explain why something is important or understand how it works.
Brace yourself… not everyone needs a college degree and college isn’t for everyone. I love school. I love learning. I love breaking things down, rummaging about their internals, and then putting them back together, metaphorically. I have been jokingly called Hermoine Granger and I took it as a compliment. (Though she stressed way more than I ever did.) I love reading. I love writing (I know, it’s obvious). I loved research papers. I am all for people learning, broadening their minds, and absorbing new information. But most colleges are a structured program that requires a great deal of input from a student, on a school’s schedule, often requiring overworked and underpaid teachers to do the best they can with what they have. A student is really only going to get so much out of this kind of program. Realistically, they are only going to get out of it proportionally to the amount of effort and time they put in.
But not everyone is cut out for college. It’s just like they always say, “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.” I hated working retail. Three of the managers loved every minute of it. They loved working with people, customers, items… everything about the job. I barely have the patience to do my own hair every so often. I get it cut about once every year or so. I know two people who are *fantastic* stylists and love their job. They wouldn’t do anything else. And they are both *very* successful. Not everyone needs to go to college and college is not the only path to success. Nor is college the only way to learn. In fact, I would agree with a friend of mine who said what you learn is not as important as learning how to learn. I was hired as a tutor in college and proceeded to tutor people in subjects I never took. How is that possible? I would skim the chapter, begin to understand, take a second look and then talk through what I had just learned with the person trying to learn. It annoyed people to no end I assure you.
We need to stop trying to get everyone to follow the cookie cutter pattern and accept that people learn differently and have different goals. We need to focus on practical knowledge and training. We need to be aware that people learn at different rates and through different methods. Trying to set a bar and insisting that everyone passes this arbitrary bar is a sure fire way to fail at increasing the national happiness and intelligence. We also need to stop the mindless push to make higher education the new High School. It is really one of those things where parents need to accept that their 18 year old is an adult and let them make their own mistakes.