Clarissa's Blog

College Misery is running this curious questionnaire on the state of higher education in the US.

What’s wrong with the current crop of undergrad students?

They were let down by the broken-down system of secondary education that prepares them for nothing but stupid multiple choice tests and by irresponsible, lazy parents who don’t want to invest any time or effort into helping their children develop.

What’s wrong with the current state of higher education in America?

Colleges have to sacrifice too much time, resources, money, and effort to conduct the remedial learning of barely literate students. This is the root of every problem in the American higher education system.

What could regular faculty do locally to improve things?

Come up with inventive ways to ensure that the remedial learning doesn’t substitute the college education entirely. For instance, one can do remedial stuff in the Freshman year but stop doing it after that.

What could part-time faculty do to not only improve their working conditions, but also the fate of our students?

Get organized, form a union. We have a labor union for contingent workers at our university, and it is a great asset to them.