Have Money, Will Admit

Ask a college professor if he believes incoming students are getting dumber every year and chances are he’ll give you a desperation-tinged, “Yes!” If it is true that this year’s incoming college freshmen’s pencils are even duller than last year’s, then why?

• Blame the high schools for not preparing students properly?
• Blame the government for forcing high schools to “teach to the test”?
• Blame television, e-mail, texting, Xbox, YouTube, I-Pods and godless music videos for distracting our young people, wiring their brains differently and making them incompatible with traditional education?

There’s probably plenty of blame to spread around, but I believe the major reason college students are T minus dumb and counting is because of the colleges themselves. Not that college has become more difficult or that professors aren’t as good as they used to be, but rather because of the way society looks at college: the idea that college is for everyone.

Society has been pushing the idea that a college education is a requirement, and even a right, for everyone. I say it is neither.

Colleges, however, benefit monetarily from this idea and are loathe to go against it. Financially-strapped institutions see each student registered as a walking pile of cash. If you have the money, they’ll let you in, whether it’s best for the student (and the school) or not.

I begin my freshman writing course with an in-class journal entry. It’s not graded, and the four questions are fairly easy to answer. The first question is, “What are the main reasons why you write (or why you don’t write)?” The answers I get most often are variations on, “I write when I have to for class.” I also get, “I don’t like to write. If I have something to say, I will just tell the person.” I have also gotten, “Writing is boring/stupid/worthless.”

If you believe advanced education to be worthless, then why are you here?

The last question is, “What are you most looking forward to in college?” The most popular answer is, “I’m looking forward to socializing and getting the ‘college experience’,” i.e. parties, alcohol, sex and, most likely, recreational drugs. When she finally came back to class, one of my students needed to wear sunglasses for three weeks because she had thrown up so much from drinking, she had broken all the blood vessels in the whites of her eyes.

If living on your own means a weekly stomach pumping, then why are you wasting tens of thousands of dollars on classes you’re not attending?

These students should learn a trade. These students should live in an apartment on their own for a year to get their newfound freedom out of their systems. These students are not meant for college—and that’s not a bad thing. What’s bad is forcing them to go to college anyway and wasting somebody’s money and everybody’s time.

Let’s make the university more exclusive. I don’t mean barring anyone by race, creed, religion, gender, or social status. I mean only accepting those students who have the brains AND the willingness to get an advanced education. Let’s value other life paths more. Let’s change the attitude that college is necessary for everyone.