College Students are Easily Bored...

On the Uses of a Liberal Education is a very interesting essay. The author discusses how today colleges no longer have admission offices, they have marketing departments. They try to sell the school and each individual class to get as many full paying students as possible. For example, whenever you see a picture of UNC there is a lovely view of the mountains:


Do we really have a view of the mountains in Greeley? No.

He says "I don't teach to amuse, to divert, or even for that matter to be merely interesting… When someone says they enjoyed the course, that is not at all what I had in mind." Now I understand that College is quite different from elementary school, but as an elementary education major I must disagree. I think some things are universal for people of all ages, whether they are 5 or 35 years old. People learn better when they are interested. There is nothing worse than sitting through a boring lecture with a monotone professor not saying anything remotely interesting. It is the teacher's job to teach their students and sometimes the best way to do that is to be entertaining and make it interesting.

He also goes on to say that not only colleges compete for students, but different departments in an individual college have to compete for students. That the English department are easier graders who rarely give Ds or Cs to attract more students. This makes me think of No Child Left Behind. According to NCLB standards, every student must be up to grade level at the end of every year. This is tested by standardized tests, or the CSAP in Colorado. Although the government has said every student must be up to standards, they left it up to the state to set the standards. So many states, Colorado included, have lowered their standards to more easily allow every student to achieve grade level. I think this is wrong and doesn’t help anybody.

Another thing he addresses is the push for group work, discussion and exchange of ideas between students in place of standard lecture. The Author argues that this doesn’t help the students acquire new vocabulary or new perspective. I find a balance of group work and lecture is most effective.