For many young Americans, schooling and credentials matter, but actual education is an afterthought. They have many other things they’d rather do than work to master course material, but since they’ve enrolled and paid, they believe that they’re entitled to good grades and degrees.
A large percentage of our teachers and professors just shrug that off, but one who doesn’t is Adam Ellwanger. In today’s Martin Center article, he laments that so many students have little interest in learning; college classes just fill up time in between more important things.
Ellwanger writes, “The prerequisites for a good online class are low enrollment and strong students. Often, though, it is the weaker students who choose online classes. They assume virtual courses will be easier: they don’t want a challenge. Other students choose to ‘attend’ online because they have many competing responsibilities. They have jobs, children to look after, ailing fathers, and appearances in divorce court. For them, school is an afterthought — the time they devote to it is whatever time is left after all the important obligations are satisfied.”
It’s almost painful to read his account of his online writing course and the lack of commitment from many of his students.
Ellwanger observes, “For so many American students, ‘college’ is just another consumer item. The time they spend in class is a service. I am the ‘server.’ They’ve paid for the class. My job, like any waiter, is to ensure customer satisfaction.”
Right, and that attitude starts early for many students. This helps to explain why the U.S. spends so much on education and gets so little benefit.