Invisible Adjunct

The appearance of irrelevance beyond the educational mileiux is the most significant problem that i can see. in short, few seems to realize what the university does for states and nations in terms of benefits, economic and otherwise.

The appearance of irrelevance, or actual irrelevance?

"few seems to realize what the university does for states and nations in terms of benefits, economic and otherwise..."

Why do you think this? The U.S. spends something like $200 billion on higher education annually. Many families spend themselves almost into the poorhouse in order to send their kids to the "right" colleges. Many students themselves go deeply into debt to pay for their higher educations.

I would say a key issue is the relationship between colleges and the job market, in all its forms. Now that education has been equated solely with career acquisition, we now wonder why students only seem to care about grades and degrees. Then there's the real problem of educational inflation...too many college graduates and not enough jobs that really require a college degree. The job market cannot accommodate the number of graduates (the adjunct situation is a classic example) yet most high schools find it "beneath" them to suggest vocational options, such as carpentry, electrical work, plumbing, etc. Note that these occupations, while being "hands on" are also way more lucrative than many degreed fields, yet they are frowned upon by parents and schools who don't seem to view them as fields that require skill and thought. Another job related connection that is a critical issue is corporate influence/privatization of schools in general. This begins to color the kind of content we see as open for discussion, and the kind of information that gets silenced via the chilling effect ("I won't talk about evolution to begin with because it's more trouble than it's worth" and other such sentiments).

I think that there's an enormous confusion at every level about the purposes of education. During prosperous, expanding, happy times you can be as confused as you want about your goals, but there's a considerable economic crunch under way, and it's hard to respond since there's no real agreement about what we are trying to do. This is a weakness of pluralistic institutions I think -- benign acceptance of the multiple purposes of the university is hard to maintain when cuts are being made.

My son has a carpenter friend who makes excellent money (better than most of his college-grad friends). He bitterly feels he missed out by not going to college. I've encountered this feeling often (I've read that Bob Dylan feels that way). College admits you to a kind of elite, gives you cultural capital, and makes it possible to meet cute girls, have lots of fun, and put on airs. Certain venues (and promotions) are just not open to non-college people. It's an odd sort of dual system of status.

And I know some skilled laborers and craftspeople who went to college, don't need it for their jobs, but find it very useful in their lives.

Perhaps if the discourse moved from the theme of crisis to the one of challenge:

spread the "spirit of learning" through and beyond the institutions.

People turning people on to intellectual activity.

Bemoan or build.

Some of us who have passed through institutions of higher learning now identify ourselves as para-academics. We, para-academics are cultivating fields of practice that distinguish between holding down a Job, developing a Career & earning a Living. See

http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~lachance/para.htm

One thing that I come up with is that very few people anywhere are very interested in humanities-type stuff. Students are into credentialization and sex, the average citizen is into investments, TV, and church, and even a lot of academics are only interested in things personal to them, such as their psyches, their hobbies, their sailboats and other pleasures (including investments and sex, of course.)

Do you seriously think that people are not interested in the humanities? Most of the adults I know (and yes, they're all employed) are avid readers of more than just the newspaper, and enjoy attending special lectures and performing arts events in their (albeit limited) spare time. Perhaps I know really unusual people. Doctors, nurses, lawyers, accountants, administrators...yep, pretty strange bunch.

I actually think (hope?) there's a hunger for the humanities. But I think much of it is stifled by the way these subjects are now too frequently taught. In history, for example, many people who might be excited about reading primary sources are required instead to peruse endless highly-theoretical analyses which seem intended to justify preselected conclusions.

Jane, maybe your choices in friendship bias your sample.

Money

The most serious problems/challenges in higher education is ..... that we pay too much attention to it?

Compared to K12, higher education is in rather good shape. Shouldnt we focus more on K12 education since it impacts more people than college? There are many problems in higher education, but there is much flexibility too. Dont like what you are studying, change your major! Dont like your school ,transfer/leave/quit. Tired to studying but still unsure? Take a semester(s) off and work. Like school a whole lot? Get a phd!
granted not all of us can do all of the above, but we can at least do some of them.

Its grade schools and high schools that have problems that have no easy solutions.

The one big problem is the commodification of education. Learning has become a product. K-12 test scores influence real estate prices, and politicians build careers on patchwork reforms.

The repeated dismantling and reconstruction of educational programs resembles what asking a construction worker to rebuild her home every five years might feel like: disruptive, tedious, and bewilderingly punitive.

This is a comment not on IA's interesting question but on the Chronicle Colloquy's participant's comment that sparked it. Are we not allowed to spend a few minutes on issues of lesser concern because there are other issues of greater concern? The teaching I do is unlikely to forestall nuclear catastrophe on the Korean peninsula--guess I'll throw in the towel.

Student debt, narrowing their choices after graduation, and the fear of it driving people away from higher education, or the best education they could get.

The issue I'd flag is the demise and demoralization of the classical liberal arts. We'll always get the engineers we need.

Thank you, Lucy.

IA -- how can you discuss your personal concerns when the earth is warming/humanity will be extinct/the SS has taken over the White House/the unemployment rate is 6%! The shame!