Jason Fertig speaks with Andy Nash in this week’s episode of InsideAcademia.tv about the new normal on campus: the problem of yesterday’s “F” having become today’s “C.” Jason, a Phi Beta Cons blogger and assistant professor of management at the University of Southern Indiana, also touches on institutional incentives, career-prep thinking, and the “everything to everybody” bloat that engorges academia.
I really enjoyed this discussion though, as always, I would like to see folks on the right spend a bit more time talking about the role of industry in helping create and maintain credentialism. If students were not being told by companies that they need a BA to even get a foot in the door, we would have far fewer people in college who don't really want to be there. While I concede that colleges and the government have played and continue to play a large role in our credential obsessed culture, businesses bear much of the responsibility as well, as they use colleges as maturation factories.
Also, I might be in the minority here, but I have never been a big fan of honors programs. I was admitted to one but declined the invitation when I was 18 because I didn't like many of the people I met at the orientation. A friend of mine did enter the program and hated it for precisely the reason I didn't join it: these hyper-competitive types weren't as interested in learning as they were in preening. And because most of the students were Type A pinheads, the discussions rarely touched on the relationship between course content and contemporary culture. The classes, in his opinion, felt like AP courses from high school: great content, but a lousy environment where learning was subordinated to petty competition. Conversely, I ended up getting a great education in "regular" classes because I did all the reading, went to office hours, and thought about the lectures on my own time. And I learned a lot from my fellow students, some of whom were brilliant, some of whom were not. But that's a lot like life.
Keep up the great work. There are many of us in academia, both liberal and conservative, who would love to see positive changes.
The role of companies in pushing the BA as a credential has been discussed here, but when you look into it, you see the government again (sorry!)
Companies used to give IQ tests or have other methods of determining whether a bright high school grad could do a job. These were all found illegal because different ethnic groups did not perform as well as whites, so under "disparate impact," using such tests was proof of discrimination. The only thing that survived was to require a particular degree. So here we are. That's the only legal way that companies can require a certain minimum level of reading/writing ability.
Any feedback you want to give is appreciated.....Thanks!
Jason
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI really enjoyed this discussion though, as always, I would like to see folks on the right spend a bit more time talking about the role of industry in helping create and maintain credentialism. If students were not being told by companies that they need a BA to even get a foot in the door, we would have far fewer people in college who don't really want to be there. While I concede that colleges and the government have played and continue to play a large role in our credential obsessed culture, businesses bear much of the responsibility as well, as they use colleges as maturation factories.
Also, I might be in the minority here, but I have never been a big fan of honors programs. I was admitted to one but declined the invitation when I was 18 because I didn't like many of the people I met at the orientation. A friend of mine did enter the program and hated it for precisely the reason I didn't join it: these hyper-competitive types weren't as interested in learning as they were in preening. And because most of the students were Type A pinheads, the discussions rarely touched on the relationship between course content and contemporary culture. The classes, in his opinion, felt like AP courses from high school: great content, but a lousy environment where learning was subordinated to petty competition. Conversely, I ended up getting a great education in "regular" classes because I did all the reading, went to office hours, and thought about the lectures on my own time. And I learned a lot from my fellow students, some of whom were brilliant, some of whom were not. But that's a lot like life.
Keep up the great work. There are many of us in academia, both liberal and conservative, who would love to see positive changes.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThe role of companies in pushing the BA as a credential has been discussed here, but when you look into it, you see the government again (sorry!)
Companies used to give IQ tests or have other methods of determining whether a bright high school grad could do a job. These were all found illegal because different ethnic groups did not perform as well as whites, so under "disparate impact," using such tests was proof of discrimination. The only thing that survived was to require a particular degree. So here we are. That's the only legal way that companies can require a certain minimum level of reading/writing ability.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse