People arent interested in education. They are interested in buying, purchasing a degree from a for-profit institution selling them. Degrees are bought with tuition money, time-spent, and going through the bureaucratic motions stipulated by the school.

That’s because that’s what corporations are interested in and people respond to incentives.

Another failing of academia is that in order to move on to a higher level course, you need only pass the prerequisite. I am of the mindset that you should need far more than merely a passing grade.

A third failing of academia is that the first week of every course is wasted reviewing the same material that was supposedly learned in the quarter/semester that just ended a week prior.

I believe that if your transcript says you have taken and passed a class, then there is no reason to review it in this course. If you dont know the material already then you shouldnt have passed the previous class.

And if its because you took that class long ago, that isnt an excuse. Its just as much the schools responsibility to assess your readiness to move forward as it is the students. Arrogance is what gets a lot of students to push forward further and faster than they can handle. If the student doesnt perceive themselves as genuinely prepared, then why not take a refresher course?

I dont believe degrees should be given to those who pass their classes. But rather to those who have actually learned the subject material. Its too easy to get a degree these days… and too many get one to save face and look good for employment, having learned nothing. But thats not the image they give. And its all about superficial image.

Back in the day, any high school drop out could succeed. A GED was better and a diploma was better yet. People were highly successful and innovative. Nowadays degrees are so prevalent and the standards so low that you cant even get anywhere with an Associates, but need at least a Bachelors. Its hurting the economy and the job market, I think.

People arent interested in education. They are interested in buying, purchasing a degree from a for-profit institution selling them. Degrees are bought with tuition money, time-spent, and going through the bureaucratic motions stipulated by the school.

I get so annoyed at my fellow classmates for holding up the classroom, for holding up lecture. They ask the teacher ridiculous questions about subject matter they should already know… because their transcripts say they should. I was enrolled in Multi-variate calculus and one day a student asked how to distribute a constant through a polynomial. No joke. “How the hell did you get into this class?”… I wanted to scrutinize and belittle so badly. This held the classroom up for at least ten minutes. Ten minutes of my tuition money, enrolled in an advanced calculus course, spent teaching trivial algebra. These are the standards of academia to date.

I am actually personally offended at the fact that my school would assess my skills and place me into the same course as these “people”, “students”. I dont believe for a minute that I should be any further ahead than I am… that would be arrogant on my part. I am placed into multivariate calculus because that is what I am ready to learn. Rather I think that 99% of my classmates shouldnt be where they are. The fact that they met the prerequisites of the course suggests to me nothing short than they managed to rote memorize, but still fail to comprehend.

Instead of saying “grad school” I probably should say “a PhD program.” Masters programs have essentially the same evaluation criteria as undergraduate programs: required classes, exams, etc.