By Professor
Doom
Time and again I’ve often wondered about
the honesty of what I’m doing in higher education. It isn’t the upper level,
technical courses that repeatedly cause me to evaluate my morality, even though
it’s easy to make a case that the more advanced courses are the least relevant
to what anyone would use math for.
No, my self-doubts are about the basic
courses, such as College Algebra. The primary issue I have is it’s a mandatory course. Granted, the course is
a prerequisite for just about every jobs-related degree higher education
offers, but it’s also mandatory for many “useless” degree programs. I’ve often
seen students in their 6th year of their 2 year degree program in
Childhood Sexual Deviancy or other new degree program, struggling to finally pass
this introductory math course.
“DEAR PRof, I jus wanted to ask u to
pass me here cuz it’s the only corse I need for my degre. Ive done good in my
other corses. Thanx!”
--typical 6th year student
asking for help in College Algebra
These students would often write me
semi-literate notes explaining how they’ve got A’s in every other course, but
just keep failing College Algebra, because it’s the only course that has
in-class tests, as near as I could tell.
Deanling: “The math department is an
impediment to graduation, and we need to do something about it.”
College Algebra isn’t the only mandatory
course, students are also forced to take English, for example, as well as a few
other courses. These “general education” courses form the foundation for a
degree. Most other departments have long since caved in, as near as I can tell,
but mathematics departments have at least somewhat tried to “hold the line” for
being sort-of confident that college degree holders actually have at least a
small measure of education.
Ultimately, this is why I’m comfortable
teaching mandatory courses—I honestly feel that a person cannot claim to be
“educated” and still ignorant of the basic mathematics I learned when I was 15
(this, frankly, is the math we teach in college algebra today). I’d like
college graduates to also be able to write, to know some history, and other
things…but I’ll at least handle my own responsibility.
For a century or more, scholars have more
or less agreed that certain basic knowledge should be held by anyone claiming to
have a proper (whatever that means) education. I’m open to changing what the
foundations of scholarship should be, although naturally I think scholars
should be the ones determining this sort of thing.
Unfortunately, administrators, with no
real interest in education, are now determining education. It’s why we can have
people who cannot read, write, or do arithmetic
even with a college degree. There’s been little faculty can do to resist the changes debasing the
meaning of a college degree, which seem to become ever more meaningless year
after year.
The latest recommendation for change comes
from Eastern Michigan University. Mandatory Black Studies courses, for
all students, all majors. They have a 10 point plan for addressing this goal. Let’s look at their
plan:
#1:
Percent of Black faculty
New
mandatory training for academic search
committee
chairs and hiring authorities
Pro-active
recruiting has been underway for
year
I know it’s a bit self-serving to have
mandatory math courses—I’d likely be out of work, otherwise--but I rationalize
that teaching knowledge that’s been humanity’s birthright for centuries is an
honorable thing to do.
Isn’t it nice that this plan is blatant
in its racism? I promise you, that “mandatory” training includes a memo about
how search (i.e., hiring) committees need to get with the program and hire
black faculty. I promise you, again, that if any institution in this country
said they were pro-actively hiring white
faculty, that institution would be hit with so many lawsuits that it would
simply shut down.
I’ve mentioned a few times the racism and
sexism on our campuses. Please, gentle reader, take this published document as
further proof that I’m not exaggerating how bad it is. Even half a dozen years
ago, it was all done with winks and nods, but now there’s no shame to putting
it in writing.
2:
Mandatory course on racism as part of
General
Education (“Gen Ed”) curriculum
So, there it is. This is a goal, but I
can’t help but notice that no justification is given for why this “knowledge”
is critical for every educated person to have. I find the goal particularly
tone-deaf in light of the first goal.
3:
Black studies included in every major
Black
student leaders will continue
meeting
with University leadership
Significant
overhaul of courses and
resources
required
I concede that “black studies” might well
be a worthy academic topic, but I don’t see why everyone needs to know it. I
know I risk drawing some heat, but which of the following ability seems more
important for an educated person to have:
2) The ability to read and understand
directions for taking medication
I honestly believe everyone educated
should be able to perform #2. I grant that this is merely my opinion, and I
might be biased…but the Black Student Union might be a little biased in their
opinion, as well. We’re producing graduates that can’t do #2, because our
college coursework is changing into things that, at best, only a small segment
of the population could actually benefit by knowing.
#4: Mandatory cultural competency
training
It’s really worth noting that a typical “4
year” degree recipient takes around 6 years to get that degree. We can’t just
tack on mandatory (is the gentle reader sick of that word yet? I hear it many
times in my profession…) courses in Black studies, in Multiculturalism, and
whatever fad we have, without sacrificing teaching our graduates some more
useful knowledge.
Just barely, the US higher education
system is still considered among the best in the world, and receives many
foreign students wanting to come here and learn in what was once a great
system. In the rest of the world, university degrees don’t contain many hours
of this ridiculous “mandatory” training. How long until the rest of the world
realizes that coming to the US for an education is a mistake?
If any administrators are reading this,
hear my plea: please stop debasing the system. If simple integrity isn’t a good
enough reason, keep in mind that when our higher education system loses foreign
students, we lose money, and at some point that will come out of administrative
pockets.
#5:
Designated space
The country has been collectively laughing
at the whole concept of “University as Safe Space,” but there’s nothing to stop
it. Students demand it, and admin, instead of being adults showing leadership,
just cave in, because making the students happy is pretty much all their job is
today.
I’m not saying all parts of the plan are
ridiculous, but let me zip ahead to a few more:
#9:
BSU-appointed committee for Black
Homecoming
I’ll again point out the extremely
offensive racism here, I dare any campus to have a White Homecoming…
#10:
Master’s/Doctorate programs for
Africology
& African American Studies
There is a massive, massive, glut of
Ph.D.’s, and has been for decades now. Even in fairly technical and supposedly
in-demand fields, you can find unemployed doctorates driving cabs or operating
microbreweries or…whatever it takes to get by.
Now, I grant, if “Black studies” becomes
mandatory, there will be a new demand for faculty to run the courses…but
where’s the discussion about the need for this new field to become mandatory?
Across the country, African Studies departments have a reputation for minimal
scholarship (it’s why the UNC scandal succeeded for so long, as nobody expected
the students coming out of that department to be capable of much).
With this kind of reputation, maybe it
would make more sense to do the real work of making this field respectable…instead,
EMU intends to use the magic word of “mandatory” to just force people to become
involved in a field that, bottom line, very few people really want to be in,
and even fewer think is legitimate.
And now I come to my favorite point of
this 10 point plan:
#11:
Women’s Resource Center to hold
three
events per year
So, yeah, I honestly believe basic math is
important to education, so that our colleges don’t look like fools.
Unfortunately, admin has watered down “college” math to the point that their 10
point plans have 11 points in them, and nobody on campus has the scholarship to
see something isn’t right about this, on any level…
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