No Size Fits All: Community Colleges

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/17/opinion/17brooks.html?_r=1

by replicatorblog • 17 years ago

12 5 17 years ago

euroclydon2• 17 years ago

I don't think technology is the answer to a better educated public. Isn't it a simple marketing problem? When Nike wants you to buy a $150 pair of shoes, they get you to think: "all the cool people have them" or "to be cool, you need these shoes." Once there is peer pressure to understand grammar, write well, and know calculus, we will have a better educated populace.

maggie• 17 years ago

I don't really agree with you that it's a marketing problem, but I don't think technology is the answer, either.

Looking at the Digital Bridge Academy's website, it just looks like another way to hold a student's hand.

Community colleges are awesome and serve many much-needed education niches in the U.S. but pushing people through an education that they don't value isn't going to create strong workers, or an educated populace, but simply drive up the minimum education requirements for any job.

euroclydon2• 17 years ago

Yeah, what I really mean is that it's a value system/society/psychology problem. I don't think slick ads for calculus or PSA's will help at all.

We homeschool our children, and rather than ask them to do workbooks, we study grammar and math, and they get educated by being around us, because we put subtle psychological pressure on them to know what we know.

I went to CC, and David is spot on about the eclectic collection of students. I lived in a mountain/resort community, so the CC attracted great instructors, but they still could have done more by having higher expectations.

mojonixon• 17 years ago

David Brooks, the great fellater of power.

Dilpil• 17 years ago

It may be true that most students who drop out do not do so for financial reasons. However, those students who do are fairly easy to help- they simply need more money. Helping the emotionally disengaged is a far harder problem, not one solvable by the government.

No Size Fits All: Community Colleges

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