AN AMERICAN EDUCATION

Higher education and the pursuit of happiness are considered central features of the American dream. But what are the real benefits of such a noble ideal? From what historical tradition of education comes this presumption? Why does the college system believe it is best equipped to teach a purpose for life? And what are the actual results a student gains with an American education in the 21st century?

An American college education, its teaching styles, top-heavy administrators, powerless teachers, and the debt burden of its participants fails to prepare students for the real world and doesn’t teach students a sense of purpose in life. An American college education is not worth the time or expense. It must be re-thought and re-invented.

Anthony Kronman, a former Yale professor of the humanities, writes in his book: Education’s End that the history of American education can be divided into three phases. 1) the founding of Harvard College in 1636 to the Civil War in 1860; 2) the Civil War until the 1960’s the age of "Secular Humanism"; and 3) the 1960’s to the present, the age of "Political Correctness." His book is a meditation on education. Like his other ‘academic’ books, he explores his subject with pedantic thoroughness that stretches the credulity of truth-seekers outside of academia and the frustrations of students with his didactic musings.

From ancient times the Christian Church has been the primary vehicle for educating white males in the western world. Harvard College, founded by English Pilgrims in 1636, established a "church in the wilderness," thus initiating the concept of education in America.

The Christian Church educated its congregation in faith as the guiding fact of human experience. But it was only males of the elites that had access to colleges like Harvard from those early days into the late 20th century - women were not admitted to Harvard until 1977.

After the Civil War and into the 20th Century – the "Age of Secular Humanism," western societies rejected the dogma of the Christian Church’s view of education based on faith. The German concept of the "University" was established to explore the "Truth" wherever it led. The focus of these secular institutions was a commitment to the "Research Ideal." Education would increasingly be focused on finding new information that could assist government, industry, and- a new humanist concept - the people.

As Anthony Kronman writes: "This new ideal of scholarship contrasted sharply with the older notion that a college teacher’s first duty is to give his students moral and spiritual guidance. A Teacher does this by introducing students to the more-or-less fixed system of knowledge and norms that constitutes their intellectual inheritance." In Mr. Kronman’s world, gone is the father and mother, gone, the church, and gone the national identity. Thus the questions is: can the college take over the role of a spiritual advisor?

Mr. Kronman’s third phase, "Political Correctness," which began in the 1960s and continues today, challenges the ideals he valued in his youth, of manifest destiny, which now, being critiqued, have been found wanting. Is education a repetition of past mistakes disguised as absolute truths or an exploration into the present and future?

Let us not forget, democracy in Greece didn’t work for the people! Pericles was a benevolent dictator who died after his master plan - hiding from the enemy – failed! The past has lessons only if we listen to them, and history’s mistakes should not be embraced just because the leaders insisted they were correct?

From the 1960s to the present time, college academic life has required courses in humanities regardless of the student’s major. Academics responded to the "Civil Rights Movement," "Political Correctness," and "Affirmative Action" by imposing diversity of ideas and ethnicity within the classroom. This reactive move towards inclusiveness questions the very ability of the researchers of the humanities to anticipate such changes. If the Humanities are about understanding humans and their ability to change in given situations, why didn’t they see Political Correctness coming! What were they researching?

Real educators can help us identify the uniqueness that makes us individually unique, but they can only point the way. "No one can build you the bridge on which you, and only you, must cross the river of life. There is one path in the world that none can walk but you. Where does it lead? Don’t ask, walk!"

Frederick Nietzsche, the German philosopher who went mad plumbing the depths of his mind for the meaning and purpose in his life, had a point; the world is all around us, not just in our heads. It’s the individual who must seek their path.

Education is an essential ingredient to the pursuit of happiness, creating a politically and socially aware citizenry. All would agree this is a good thing for America. Cornel West preaches: "Democracy is founded on the idea that those who are affected by political actions must be an integral part of the decision-making process that guides and regulates their lives." Thus, politically aware, and socially engaged people are the same thing for America and the democratic process needs to develop as our founders imagined.

Today, our political classes have hi-jacked democracy with Machiavellian malevolence, using democracy’s openness and freedoms to undermine freedom.

American peoples’ lack of broad political comprehension about their responsibilities as citizens is continuously exposed by media pundits and entertainers who make a great living laughing at stupid Americans. This demonstrates the failure of our educational institutions generally and the Humanities department specifically that have failed in one of their fundamental responsibilities – educating a socially and politically engaged populace.

America’s anti-intellectualism, in the past, has always been an existential threat. There was still the notion that sooner or later, the true American spirit would rear its head and fight for democracy. We are now in that moment of history when the promise must be revealed. There is no fight! There are only the cringing displays of intellectuals hiding in their ivory towers with their hands out for payments from private industry.

What is stirring America’s current melting pot of nationhood, set ablaze by "Political Correctness," and the abandonment of the intellectual class is that there is no consistent narrative coming from those whose primary responsibility is a national narrative: the intellectuals the educators!

Where would we be without the words of the Constitution, the civil rights movement, the suffragettes? Our society and culture are based on the idea that ideas matter! More than ever, we need a national story that will help us deal with the new crises with rapid-fire explosiveness in today’s America.

The history of America’s research ideal approach has always been to throw money at a problem. The problems that America faces today require courage, consensus, and compassion, which are unfortunately not preached or practiced currently in our secular society that seems determined to become a theocracy.

An American Education is no more than a money-making enterprise that profits administrators, private industry, teachers, and students in that order. Each college, in each state, is an industrial unit unto itself. Administrators rule the roost with salaries twice that of Teachers. Increasingly private industry is providing online computer programs for public institutions.

Teachers focus on tenure, students on quotas, grade points, transfer requirements, state requirements, parking tickets, food privatization, and the unrelenting abstract tests that frazzle brains and alienate souls. All this is in the service of a top-heavy pyramid structure that rewards the organizers over the educators.

Nanette Asimov, a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer, reported on July 27, 2018, that "California State University trustees approved raises of between $8,000 to $13,000 a year for the 23 campus presidents, five vice-chancellors and CSU Chancellor Timothy White, whose annual pay grew by $13,510 to $463,855."

In May 2017, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that University administrators are paid an average of $126,000 a year while the average Instructor’s salary is $70,00 a year. In 2017, there were 18,200 tenure track professors in the California University system, compared to 45,000 temporary instructors.

The largest share of educators is employed in the Humanities, fine arts, and interdisciplinary studies, accounting for approximately 35 percent of the university headcount; a Yale professor, like Mr. Kronman, makes over $187,000 per year, before his book deals. By contrast, the average student tuition is $12,000 per year in the California University system. It doesn’t take rocket science to see who benefits most.

As someone who returned to college after 4O years, I’ve discovered that people only learn what they’re interested in. When I was young, I learned about learning by traveling the world. That experience remains with me today and was more significant than any college education. Because of my real-life experiences with people and places, I became interested in History, Politics, Sociology, Philosophy of those lands, and my own. I studied Math because I wanted to be an engineer. I studied literature and writing because I wanted to write my stories. I studied art to become an antique dealer.

Today, where are the classes for creativity and innovation in an American college education, where are the programs for individual development? The Educational Industrial-complex’s payoff to their students is a degree that may provide them a 40% greater chance of getting a job than a high school diploma? But it’s for a workforce whose real wages have not increased in 40 years! A degree only gives a student passage to the wage-poor middle class, where they will spend the next 20 years paying off their student debts.

So, here’s my solution: let’s invest in our youth! Let’s provide free education for K-22. That’s a kindergarten through college. This is how we do it: from 2-5, all kids are offered free training that stimulates them to explore and enjoy learning. From ages 5-10 years, kids are instructed in civic and personal responsibilities and learning techniques. From ages 11-15, students are encouraged to be creative and innovative. From ages 16 to 17, students are exposed to what it takes to be an adult in the real world outside of school.

The college would consist of vocational study and the research ideal, wherever students’ interests take them. Let’s automate the administration with smartphones, convert the administrator back into teachers – thereby instantly creating smaller classes with a better teacher-student ratio. Put the teachers back in control of the teaching business, increase their salaries to a living wage of $130,000 a year, and use private industry only as a last result to provide services and products.

Each college student would do community service for the equal number of years they spent in college, at full pay. The money to pay for this is already available in society. Trim the military budget by half – the military is a wasteful use of taxes, a non-capitalist enterprise that produces no economic value for society!

The $200-300 billion yearly investment in education would result in providing an engaged, educated, and erudite youth who would be creative, innovative, and committed to making America great. A positive by-product of such a program would equalize the social and economic disparities in our ‘free’ society.

Finally, in my experience, people only learn what they’re interested in. Everyone is primarily motivated by their desire to be recognized and appreciated. College education does not accept students as emerging adults, only as profit generators for college administrators. Students are trained to regurgitate just what they think the teacher wants. There is no time for learning, only reacting. As a young man, I learned more by traveling worldwide than I ever did in college. The places I visited the people I spoke with created interest in the world and my place in it.

Returning to college is no more than the machinations of college bureaucracies, a lifetime burden of debt for young people. The training of wage slaves for the business world that is only intent on exploiting its workers promises nothing but heartaches for young people who desperately want to be a part of a positive force that can truly make America great in the 21st century.