In this week’s Pope Center Clarion Call, I write about the new book In the Basement of the Ivory Tower by “Professor X.” He’s an adjunct who teaches English at two lower-tier schools, and the book is highly revealing. Many of his students are barely literate and can’t write coherently, but there they are in English 101, having gotten through the remedial filters. They have little interest in learning and are in college just for the credential.
If we try to expand higher education they way President Obama and many in the higher education establishment want, the increase in student numbers will come almost entirely from students like these — and even weaker ones. The author sees the parallel to the housing bubble. We already have lots of “students” who are very dubious candidates; next we’ll have to go to the college equivalent of “liar loans.”
College education still has a mystique for many people. Supposedly, it does much to impart needed knowledge and skills. It’s said to be our “best investment.” Read this book and you’ll find out it ain’t necessarily so.