Dumbing Down America
My brother, sister, and I were reviewing a paper my brother was writing the other day. It's funny when the three of us try to edit the same paper. My brother is very formal in his writing... I'm a little more stylistic and casual... and my sister, being a communications graduate student, is very structured in her writing. So when the three of us converge on one paper we're lucky if we have anything left when the editing is all said and done. During this most recent editing convergence, an argument erupted over the proper wording and punctuation of a particular sentence. During the "exchange of ideas" (which sounds better than argument... haha), my brother said, and I quote:
Please keep in mind that I normally try to dumb down what I'm trying to say so that the other people in my class will understand it.
At first glance, this could be mistaken for a case of intellectual snobbery (intellectual snobbery from this family???? NEVER! hahaha). But I can assure you it's not. Since all of their assignments are posted online, I've had the distinct pleasure of reading over some of the writing of his fellow classmates. Yes... I'm truly that much of a nerd... I read the writing of other people's classes in my free time. What... you're surprised? But it's not just his class. I took several online courses while working on my degree and so, unlike in a seated class, all of the papers and writings were posted in the open for all to see. Half of the writing done for these online classes is simply crap. Plain and simple... crap. One-fourth could be considered acceptable college-level writing. The remaining fourth was very good.
After my brother's comment I got to thinking...
When did we decide it was better to dumb things down than to hold people responsible for being able to understand?
There was a time in history when all of the writing done for a college class would be, at the very least, acceptable. There was a time in history when anyone not able to perform at the standard expected of higher education would not be admitted. There was a time in history when a college degree actually meant something.
Times have changed.
Every school has admission requirements. They have minimum GPA, test score, and proficiency requirements. And then they have "exceptions". In preparation for my eventual return to school, I was reading through the Graduate Catalog for Missouri State University. The clinical psychology track has a long list of requirements: undergraduate GPA... three letters of recommendation, including two from doctoral-level college instructors... GRE scores... and successful completion of a pre-admission paper and personal interview. Below the list of requirements is a little statement that, in a nutshell, says that someone who doesn't meet the listed requirements can be admitted to the program exceptionally.
Why?
If you don't meet the requirements for admission... you should not be admitted. I can promise you that I'm not coming from a snobbish perspective. There is one requirement that I don't meet dealing with undergraduate courses. I *should* have to go back and take those undergraduate classes before I'm even considered for the clinical program. I *should* have to work to bring myself up to the standards set by the university. I *should* know that applying at this point would be a waste of my time.
But I don't have to go back and take those courses I need. I don't have to bring myself up to meet the standards. I don't think applying now would be a waste of my time.
And why don't I have to do any of these things?
Because, in the name of "fairness", the standards will be lowered down to my level.
Let me share a few statistics with you from The Informatics Review: e-journal of the Association of Medical Directors of Information Systems:
* Nearly 50% of the Americans surveyed cannot read well enough to find a single piece of information in a short publication, nor can they make low level inferences based on what they read
* The average reading level of American parents of young children is 7th or 8th grade
* 41.6% of American patients could not comprehend directions for taking medication on an empty stomach; 26% were unable to understand information regarding when their next appointment was scheduled; 50.5% could not understand a standard informed consent form
* About 20% of the US population are functionally illiterate; for some subsets of our population, that rises to 40%
* About one in every four Americans (25%) is a high school dropout; About half (45%) have gone to college for some period of time, but fewer than one in six (15%) have a college degree
According to the The National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, 75% of Americans believe that a college education is more important today than it was a decade ago. In addition, "89 percent of the American public believes that no qualified and motivated student should be denied a college education because of cost". And finally, 91% of Americans believe that the benefit of college is dependent on the amount of effort a student puts into his or her education.
There are rampant contradictions between these two sets of information.
Three quarters of the population think a college education is important... yet only half can comprehend a short publication. Three quarters of the population think a college education is important... yet the average reading level of American adults is only 7th or 8th grade. And nearly a third of the American public can't understand simple appointment details.
So how are all of these people getting into college? Simply put... we've lowered expectations so much that anyone who wants a higher education can get one. Because that's what's "fair". It could be argued that it wouldn't be right to deny someone who couldn't afford to go to college but who was otherwise up to the set standards of admission. The opposite, however, is not true.
It's not only fair to deny someone who doesn't meet the standards of higher education... it's necessary.
If you want into college, but you don't meet the standards, work to change that. Study. Read. Broaden your horizons. Take classes at a trade college or community college. There are numerous ways to bring yourself up to the standards set by the institution to which you're applying. All of these options are better than the alternative: lower standards... lower expectations... and, consequently, lower results. "Fair" shouldn't factor in at all.
If you want to talk about what's fair, chew on this. Is it really fair to the people who did meet the standards of entry that their education is now dumbed down and diluted so that those who did not meet said standards can make it? Is it fair for anyone that the information covered in three sequential lower-division classes would have been covered in one survey class twenty years ago? Is it fair that professors feel pressured to detail EVERYTHING about a subject for those people who simply don't understand the idea of study? Is it fair that half an hour of my class period, in which I should be learning, is taken up by people asking questions about exactly which pages of the book should be studied for the upcoming midterm?
In the end, everyone looses when higher education is dumbed down for the sake of being fair. Schools vary on the amount of dumbing down that they do. Two equally knowledgeable instructors can teach the exact same class at two different schools. One school, which holds the standards it has set strictly, will no doubt turn out better informed students because 1) the students are of the aptitude to understand the information 2) the students are used to being held to certain standards, and 3) time can be spent learning instead of leading. The other school, because of it's lowered standards and expectations, will struggle to get even the most basic of understanding across to it's less able, less interested, and less serious students.
Now don't get me wrong. I'm not against financial assistance to qualified students who cannot afford college. I know I couldn't have gone to college without financial assistance... lots of it. But I wouldn't even waste my time applying to a college who's required standards I did not meet. And I certainly wouldn't make a stink about the fact that I didn't meet the standards and request that they be lowered or I be admitted exceptionally. I'd either look for somewhere else to go or work to raise myself up to the standards which I did not meet.
In the end, the solution is simple: if you do not meet the standards set for admission... you don't get admitted. If you don't perform at the level expected of a college student... you get booted. After you've worked and brought yourself up to compensate for your deficiencies... try again.
Dumbing down the entire academic system will eventually make it's entire purpose moot... if it hasn't already.
posted by Derick @ 3:19 PM
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