The Academic Bubble

Regardless of what school you go to, the education gained rests on the shoulders of the student and their engagement levels in their own learning.

Education has less impact these days because kids increaswingly expect to be taught, not to learn. Laziness and the expecttation of employability is just as much the problem as the university tuition rates.

Every generation has been lazier than the last since the days of Plato, and we've not degenerated into sloths yet. Skyrocketing tuition rates in an oversaturated educational-services market are a new problem, one that will cause an economic bubble in academia.

I wouldn't worry about listless youth, I would worry instead on the absolutely horrible investments they're making in education.

It is annoying seeing these posts. However, perhaps there is a great opportunity for hackers in this market.

I've created a bunch of my own videos (like Khanacademy but better) and have been teaching online classes for 5 years at a community college. My experience is that roughly 30% of the students pass my class without any interaction from me. They just need to be pointed in the right direction and need to know in what order the topics should be covered.

This fact, coupled with the fact that all elearning websites suck make for an opportunity. I don't know enough about programming to pull off my ideas on what can be done. There are inefficiences in the market but not as much as articles about academe being the next bubble suggest.

I think in certain circles it has been dissected enough, but I doubt the message has gotten out to the public at large.

It's still a hot button issue for me, at least. When I was in 7th grade, my English teacher had us read Macbeth, Northwest Passage, The Last of the Mohicans, The Red Badge of Courage, and other notable works. We discussed them in detail and wrote essays ad nauseum. It was hard, but we were the better for it.

Last year, in my son's Literature class (note; it's not English anymore - it's Literature), they read a smattering of short stories from a brightly illustrated textbook and his sole "book report" was to make a pop-up book from his chosen novel "Percy Jackson and The Last Olympian" (now a major motion picture!). This was typical of many of his classes - plenty of busy work, but thin on substance. His middle school ranks very well by state standards, but it's just not a solid education, in my opinion.

This isn't a generational issue, either. Kids' minds are as pliable now as they were in previous generations, but I don't think the schools push them enough on the right things.

Did nobody notice the other articles linked at the bottom of this one? For example:

"Black Children Do Not Need a Western-style Education"

I, for one, would like to see a little bit more criticism of things being posted to HN, and their sources. Because once people know the HN push-button issues, unquestioning readers can be easily lured down the path to thinking and believing very nasty things.

Despite what the 'logical' HN cannon says, an author's background and intent actually matter very much. It may be popular on HN to assume that only facts matter, but I invite you to read the following piece to see how "facts" (real things that really happened) can be skewered by intent:

http://www.alternativeright.com/main/blogs/hbd-human-biodive...