August 24, 2015
The Insanity Increases: College Administrators/Government Rip Off Society (yet again)
by, LaDawn Wilson
I truly believe before we keep going forward with
the way things are moving forward, we as citizens in this country, need to put
a plug in the way America looks at education, the way we pay for education, and
the attitude we have concerning education.
The costs have sky rocketed, with administration increasing
their salaries sometimes to the tune of $887,244, which was given
to an administrator at a public university. (Huffman, 2015). Retired professor Kofas from the University of Illinois reminds us that it just won’t be US citizens paying
for spiked college costs. We are seeing the same trend in the works globally. Kofas
has it right when he says, “Higher education is in fact a mirror of society, a mirror of what it
is today and where it is headed. Political and business elites should be very
concerned with what they see in that mirror, sacrificing higher education for
short-term profits, and sociopolitical conformity.” (Kofas, 2015).
This
scenario reeks of the worst in humanity: Utilitarian usage of human lives so
that an entity’s profit margin increases, governmental power and money
increases, and an increase in a prideful unethical university/governmental staff. These types decrease the likelihood of seeing the dignity of
the human person, as well as, any thought toward the common good. These types balk at anything being spoken of
in terms of “natural law” because they don’t want to be responsible for others,
let alone their own actions. These types do not want to pursue what makes something
“permanent” or what leads to true conservation because they live by faddish
impulsive experimental sentiments. These immature adults are creeping into
every part of our texts, administration, governmental bodies, and news outlets.
They have no idea what a real education is, yet they are in charge of the whole
system!!!
Emotional intelligence in our government and academia needs some
attention. Who would want a government to get so heavily involved in the education
of their children that they are the keepers of the children’s future? How can
that possibly make sense for a free society? Do we want our future generations
laden with debt they may never be able to pay back?
Emotional intelligence used in this situation might beg for less
administrators, humble simple administrators, less frills on campus, and a
mindset that an education is about the whole person, not just their wallets. This
acceptance by appointed officials in the executive office that tout that
education is this or that way just makes us frogs simmering in the big brother
pot.
It makes sense for people to be sensical. MOOC’s will probably
one day be accredited. Families with high school kids in dual credit classed will
use these MOOCs and understand the stupidity of using a system that puts them
and their children in debt, does not offer the classes that would actually be
useful on the job, and frees them from a system regulated by bureaucrats.
Some
are thinking of raising the Pell Grant limit, which in the beginning, sounds
like a good idea. (Wheeler, 2015). But that raises another question: Who pays
for the pell grant system? The tax payer. So even if families, who cannot
afford the costs of spiked college tuition get access to pell grant monies,
they will pay for it in their taxes. The twist there is very sly indeed.
A university has the ability to oftentimes bring about an
atmosphere that sparks minds from their slumber, enlivens new ideas, sees the beauty
in what truly works and creates new avenues for forging through what does not
work (St Johns College for one, but overpriced). That is what a university
should be facilitating in minds. Minds at work at a university should be minds contemplating
higher truths. There is nothing true and good about our college debt system
today and it weighs heavily on families who do not qualify for grants, which
they end up paying anyway (ugh!). The smart families are the ones refusing to
take on college debt. They should be given special medals. Moms are taking on
one or two part time jobs, while dad works more hours and their child works on campus.
All for what? A job? How many philosophy,
sociology, or theology classes (that have honorable professors) did that child
take in that four-year span? When I say TS Eliot, who knows who that even is
today? And does that even matter? It very well should but we are letting the truths of humanity slip into an abyss.
The sociopolitical conformity Kofas speaks of is real and it
pulls the true, good, and beautiful into extinction and replaces it with an
existential revisionist mindset of serving the state. It eliminates the idea
that the individual must aim for something higher than himself and certainly much
higher than the state! We are inundated with texts trying to red mark the basic
truth of America: that it was founded on the idea that men should rise to
virtuous principles, that a civic class is just as important as an English class,
and that we are to trust God and live a life that serves the common good. It is
“unpopular” to mention God outside of where your bottom sits on a pew and this truth
in business and social events has landed us smack dab in our own sinking mess. We are seeing the fruits of our educational system: Hooking up, sexting, honoring demonic
statues, rioting in the streets, millions of sites of porn on the internet,
addictions (alcohol, eating, porn), suicide, murder (of the infant and
elderly), gang killings, disrespect for the elderly, and the list goes on and
on. This is not normal!!! This is not sane!!!! Yet, what do we do? Raise the
cost of education, rally around more mundane revisionist classes, pay
administrators exuberant amounts of money, push texts instead of real books
(some of course are fine—science, business), build conglomerate sports
stadiums, build posh dorms, and hire chefs. Is that supposed to lead the student to the
true, the good, and the beautiful? I think not. Shame on the government for
taking over the student loan systems. Shame on universities and colleges for
making a mockery of what a real education is and shame for letting the price of
a dumbed down education be out of reach unless large amounts of debt are taken
on by the student. Shame!
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