by kt88pppamp » Mon Jul 01, 2013 9:07 pm
Textbooks from that vintage remind me of how dumbed down education has become. Even someone like me, who is an intellectual that strongly values education, has trouble understanding the way it is written. I am almost 30 and that book was written for an audience of 18 or 19 year old engineers in training. What an 18 or 19 year old could understand in the 1950s seems like light years from what they can now.
I have a feeling a large reason for that was that fewer groups of persons had access to education and many chose not to attend college at all. With a narrower audience of students, textbook publishers assumed better college preparedness.
Modern higher education emphasizes exams, quizzes, testing, and "cookbook style" labs. Today's realities demand an flexible education model that revolves around critical thinking. With that, our very diverse group of students will become better motivated because they actually will feel challenged. Being trained to "think outside the box" will also sustain America's innovative spirit and culture, a critical trait that will allow us to compete globally. It also made America great in the first place.
For those hopeless cases that choose to have fun in college rather than learn, simply boot them out. If they party and binge drink, give them lengthy jail terms or work programs coupled with intense counseling/accountability training. ADHD is no excuse! It is overdiagnosed because of TV, junk food, and the permissive parenting epidemic.
-Ice cream is irresistible.
-Spaghetti and salt is irinductable.
-Artichokes are ircapacitable.