Colleges Baby Their Students, Education Loses its Purpose
What has happened to our educational system? Have our standards been so systematically lowered over the years that our coddling no longer challenges its student body? We continually struggle as a society to find the medium between addressing the arising issues of the times while pushing forward into the future. In the case of higher academic education, our arising issues seem to sprout from our progressive ambition. Schools of every level, elementary to college, have taken steps to lower their expectations of students in order to create better test score ratios, or to simply pass their students onto the next grade. Education has become politics rather than learning and the actions of our learning facilities serves as proof of this.
New York Times writer Catherine Rampell reports that, “In the last two years, at least 10 law schools have deliberately changed their grading systems to make them more lenient… Law schools like New York University and Georgetown, as well as Golden Gate University and Tulane University, which just announced the change this month” (June 2010). Grade inflation has become more common and with it so has the criticisms. Loyola Law School in Los Angeles will soon implement its higher grade point average, tacking on 0.333 to every grade recorded in the last few years. They believe, like many other schools, that, given this harsh economy, students need a leg up. By making graduates more attractive in the ever-competitive job market, they feel they are doing them a great service.
Imagine if you will, though, that outside the realm of a hectic economy, we are ushering under-educated masses into the job market to take on the job roles that are too difficult for them. If we continually undercut the academic programs, which we use to equip adults for their professional careers, what will that say about our shaky economy’s future? How can it possibly be expected to grow and flourish the machinery doesn’t know how to function properly?
We create a cyclical effect, asking our children to grow into contributing adults, but coddle them into their adulthood, neglecting the need to challenge their minds so that they can fully develop. It seems that the world of academics refuses to acknowledge the future consequences of its actions, or at least entertain the possibility of destructive decision making. The lack of this type of responsibility is the very essence of the purpose of education. We should seek out knowledge to understand how to better the world and ourselves. If we misunderstand the great power we have in such drastic decisions we will end up not only undercutting our students futures, but the entire future of this nation.