75% of all teaching faculty members across the US are adjuncts. This sad state of affairs has been discussed form every angle, except one. There would be no excuse to hire so many adjuncts if there didn’t exist such an overwhelming need to provide remedial learning.
Students come from high school lacking the most basic skills needed to acquire a real university education. In this sense, the only difference between students from fancy Ivy League schools and students from non-fancy state schools is that the rich kids are a lot better at passing meaningless standardized tests. In everything else, they are all equally ignorant.
So we have to dedicate the first 2 years (at least) to teaching them the basics of history, geography, foreign language, calculus, academic reading and writing. Lecturers, instructors and adjuncts are hired to serve as high school teachers to people who already have high school diplomas that mean less and less every day.
And only after the basic skills get finally rammed into the students’ heads, can the real teaching of the kind that merits hiring a research scholar begin.
On the level of secondary education, too many students are still being educated as if we were still in the 1920s and needed an enormous number of factory workers, waitresses, and housewives. The world has changed and we are on the verge of a reality where even a Bachelor’s diploma will not be enough to qualify for a decent job. Still, high schools are not catching up and immature parents can’t conceive of putting in any effort on their own.
There is no adjunct problem that exists in isolation. This is part of a much larger issue: a society that can’t absorb changes fast enough.
Clarissa's Blog 
People working in the public schools have told me that children of Central and South American immigrants are highly motivated, but get zero support from their parents. Two have even told me that high schools cannot assign homework to these students, as their parents will not let them do it. As a Hispanic scholar, do you think this is a true aspect of Latin American culture, or is it (as I strongly suspect) just racial prejudice?
LikeLike
I honestly have never heard of anything like that. Maybe a specific family here and there has this attitude but as a wider cultural phenomenon, I don’t think this exists.
Latin Americans? Are you there? Have you noticed anything like this?
LikeLike
Seems a generalization to me. Perhaps, it has nothing to do with the fact that they’re from Latin America but rather that they live in poor household and are therefore expected to help either with the family business and with the domestic chores leaving less time for homework and/or their parents are too busy working to sit down with them and help them.
I’ll be very interested to hear more details about this. Perhaps you can inquire in a specific family?
LikeLike
That’s what I would guess, too — that it’s not that their parents don’t want them to do well, but that they need to help out, either by working an after-school job or by taking care of younger siblings while both parents are at work.
Some kids can still do well in school with all these extra responsibilities, but others can’t.
(I’ve had both Hispanic and white friends who had to juggle family, work and school like this, and I do think it has more to do with being poor — or lower-middle-class — than with anything specific to culture.)
LikeLike
Consider North Carolina:
* educational budget cut by 11%
* 17 thousand fewer positions in public schools
* 6 thousand educational personnel laid off
* textbook funding for schools cut by 80%
http://www.icontact-archive.com/PX0U1-9kSYNda3mhP_nFSfu0hL6cfQrz?w=3
Of course they need remedial learning. The question is who benefits (or Cui bono if you’ve had a half decent education)?
LikeLike
Well, you see? This is all interlinked. One issue can’t be analyzed in isolation from all others. A country’s entire system of education on all levels is a single entity that deserves a lot more attention and care than it is now getting.
LikeLike
Unfortunately another trend that I’m seeing (including at my own institution) is that contingent faculty are teaching art and humanities classes: philosophy, music, visual art, history of art etc etc. Positions that were once filled by tenured faculty are converting to contingent positions as faculty retire. Meanwhile schools are hiring in subjects like business and athletic training at accelerated rates.
I think we are seeing a nationwide trend that conceives of higher education as vocational and consequently devalues the arts and humanities. From my perspective, the arts and humanities are essential to the experience of higher education and essential to becoming a thoughtful, feeling human being. But, as you say, this is also an issue that extends beyond higher education. Grammar school and high schools are also cutting music and art programs in order to spend more time on standardized testing. I still think higher education in the US is still phenomenal. But I fear that the university is going to become a glorified technical school if we don’t really start fighting these initiatives at every level of schooling.
LikeLike
Really? That’s surprising. Are you at a state school?
(I knew art and music were suffering greatly at the K-12 level, but I hadn’t known it had spread to college.)
LikeLike
No. I’m at a private college.
LikeLike
Maybe the Québec CEGEPS are not a bad thing…
LikeLike
And here in Québec, basics are supported outside faculty.
LikeLike
And to those who want to abolish CEGEPS in Québec, READ THIS AND SHAME ON YOU!
LikeLike
What are CEGEPS?
LikeLike
A CEGEP is an education institution in Quebec where students go after high school. There are 2 types of programs in CEGEPs: a pre-university program where students are offered the equivalent of Freshman courses at a university, are taught academic writing, etc. AND a vocational program for students who don’t plan on going to a university. A CEGEP costs about $200 per year and you go for 2 years. It is a really phenomenal program for immigrants, for example, because they can prepare to go to the university very cheaply and integrate into the society very easily, like my sister did. A wonderful, wonderful institution is a CEGEP.
LikeLike
3 years for vocational programs and you could go the University even with a diploma in those vocational programs.
LikeLike
Yes, people can always change their mind and choose to go to university if they want.
LikeLike
A CEGEP sounds a bit like a community college, only with more focus. Right now community colleges are set up sort of like that, where you can get a 2-year AS (“Associate in Science”) degree in a vocational program, are a two year AA (“Associate in Arts”) degree that serves the same purpose as the freshman and sophomore years in a regular university. And they also make you take a test before getting in and if you need remedial classes (as I did, since I took a years-long hiatus after high school and had forgotten a lot of my math) you have to take those before starting on the regular core courses. The only difference is: everyone doesn’t go to these; over the years a ridiculous stigma has grown up around community colleges as being places where “losers” who “can’t make it” into regular unis have to go, so of course no status-conscious American wants to go to one (even if it would work better for them); and they aren’t low-cost, though they cost a lot less than regular four-year colleges.
LikeLike
“The only difference is: everyone doesn’t go to these; over the years a ridiculous stigma has grown up around community colleges as being places where “losers” who “can’t make it” into regular unis have to go, so of course no status-conscious American wants to go to one”
– Exactly! There is a completely idiotic stigma. I hate it when people fixate on stupid things like status and not on the substance of what they are getting.
LikeLike
I think the stigma against community colleges might be starting to lessen some, with so many people going back to school to help get new jobs after losing their old ones. The President is quite a cheerleader for them, too.
Also, at my alma mater I don’t remember there being any stigma associated with going to one — lots of the students there had done their first two years at a community college to save money.
LikeLike
I would have gone in a community college if I would be an american.
LikeLike
I would have gone in a community college if I was an american
LikeLike
“And to those who want to abolish CEGEPS in Québec, READ THIS AND SHAME ON YOU!”
– Yes. Idiots. CEGEPs are a phenomenal idea. And they work really great.
LikeLike
And on a personal note, I spent my best years on CEGEP. (in sciences)
LikeLike
My sister loved her CEGEP experience but hated university (BComm at McGill.) If you know what the business education at McGill is like, you will understand.
LikeLike
Beurk… I would not even try it.
LikeLike
I am completely opposed to any Bachelor’s degrees in business. It is really stupid that anybody would try to learn to run a business in a classroom. A higehr education is not supposed to be about that at all.
An MBA for mature people who have experience working in business is another matter.
LikeLike
I’m in favor of degrees in Business Administration, as long as you don’t sale them to prospective students as “running businesses” diplomas,, which is a ridiculous concept.
Businesses need administration specialists (Accountants, marketing, management, finance, economics) to work properly, especially in the actual capitalist system.
LikeLike
My sister got her diploma in marketing. Neither marketing nor finance can be taught at a university. Or should. These are practical skills, what do they have to do with university studies? Accounting is really best taught at a vocational school.
LikeLike
“I am completely opposed to any Bachelor’s degrees in business. It is really stupid that anybody would try to learn to run a business in a classroom. A higehr education is not supposed to be about that at all.”
I would also add that someone with a Bachelor’s degree in business and nothing else is probably fated to become a helicoptered-in mid-level manager somewhere, since their resulting lack of knowledge in any other field really isn’t going to help them become entrepreneurs.
LikeLike
“I would also add that someone with a Bachelor’s degree in business and nothing else is probably fated to become a helicoptered-in mid-level manager somewhere, since their resulting lack of knowledge in any other field really isn’t going to help them become entrepreneurs.”
– The problem is also that these students are given the idea that they will all be the next Steve Jobs. So their expectations straight out of college is blown out of all proportion. Everybody goes in for the business degree to become a millionaire. The job market becomes a very rude awakening.
LikeLike
“Neither marketing nor finance can be taught at a university. Or should. These are practical skills, what do they have to do with university studies? Accounting is really best taught at a vocational school.”
So you adopt the same discourse than scientists when they say that Humanities should be abolished. I don’t like this academic protectionnism at all on every side of the coins.
Marketing, as the particular domain of psychology and sociology that concerns salescrittership, is not only about making ads, and this is not only about practical skills.
Finance is a particular domain of mathematics like physics and statistics, so this is not only about practical skills.
I do agree that accounting, at least in a basic level, could be taught at a vocational school (that exists in Québec), but I’m more confident with an accountant who have a more general knowledge about administration than an ignorant one.
LikeLike
“Marketing, as the particular domain of psychology and sociology that concerns salescrittership, is not only about making ads, and this is not only about practical skills.
Finance is a particular domain of mathematics like physics and statistics, so this is not only about practical skills.”
– These people are impossible to place for jobs because they learn nothing in their programs. That’s the reality. And marketing as psychology? Come on. This is exactly the lie that is told to these students who believe that they will be creating ad campaigns straight out of college based on reading a bunch of silly articles and doing a bunch of silly projects in college.
LikeLike
So we should abolish almost all humanities because they don’t bring enough jobs?
LikeLike
What does this have to do with Humanities? Humanities give people a multitude of super useful skills + a deeper understanding of the world + an appreciation of culture.
Have you observed any marketing program up close? Just take a list of courses they teach. You’ll see that there is nothing about skills + a deeper understanding of the world + an appreciation of culture in their programs. International business programs specializing in Latin America, for example, do not require any knowledge of Spanish, Hispanic culture, Hispanic literature, even geography! Nothing of the kind. What they do in class is discuss the experience of American corporations in South America. That’s education?
LikeLike
I disagree with your categorization of the basics of foreign languages here–many people, even if their high school language education is excellent (rare, uou’re right that its usually terrible) want to take new languages in college. Teaching basic language classes well at the collegiate level is absolutely “the real teaching of the kind that merits hiring a research scholar”.
LikeLike
“many people, even if their high school language education is excellent (rare, uou’re right that its usually terrible) want to take new languages in college”
– Yes, of course, and that’s great. But it would be nice if all those people who want to major in, say, Spanish and who come to us after taking 4-6 years of Spanish had something to show for it.
LikeLike
Somehow the idea of college as vocational training fits into this too (you have already said this, but it’s worth expanding on).
I have various students with BAs, former students, working in jobs that don’t technically require college, but that they, personally, would not have had the general skills to get and do had it not been for a liberal arts degree, because it made them broader as people. My famous great-aunt Valeska, of course, was like this with a high school degree, but that was a high school degree from over 100 years ago, and she still wanted to go to college, for the purpose of study (although she did not get to).
LikeLike