Ask a group of traditional college students – late teens and early twenties in age, seeking the baccalaureate and living in a residential hall/dormitory – what higher education is preparing them for and they will shout out the response in unison: “The Real World!” They are not talking about MTV, either. Their belief that the…
Tag: outcomes
Who Is The Party Pooper?
Craig Brandon’s The Five-Year Party makes me think of reheated coffee: sometimes necessary but always bitter, acidic, and thin. A former journalism professor at Keene State, New Hampshire, Brandon has assiduously collected bad new and bad results throughout higher education in order to populate this book. He weaves together the negativity into an extraordinarily bleak…
I Read a Good Book and Wondered Why
Arguments on behalf of the liberal arts are borne, more often than not, out of fear. “The liberal arts are under attack!” academicians decry, faced with budget cuts and the vagaries of student enrollment trends. People do not understand their importance, it is claimed, with a tone whose undercurrent is condescending. The most popular major…
It’s Broken – Have We Noticed?
We are awash in educational data. Reports emerge from agencies, foundations, corporations and institutions, and for those with the time and an inclination, further opportunities about. There are mysteries in educations, to be sure, but their essence and appeal has shifted from search to analysis. This seems to be particularly true when it comes to…
Why College?
Does anyone go to college today for anything other than practical reasons? Are all students looking for jobs? I very much enjoy talking with high school students about college. At Curry College, I regularly see prospective students and their families, from the early inquiry stage to applicant, accepted students, and then, possibly, matriculant. When the…