The Path to Utopian Education

   It's no secret that the education system in America is suffering, and graduates are feeling less and less prepared to take on the real world. Not only do they feel less qualified than previous generations, but they are also less able to take on the everyday challenges of the world from things like home and car repair and maintenance, financial planning and issues, as well as how to deal with grief, disappointment, and even with those of whom they simply disagree with. After going to college for over 3 years, I have noticed quite a lot of things wrong with our education system and how it prepares us for the real world. Not only is there a lot that needs to be added to better our education system, a lot also needs to be taken away. First I would like to point out the problems with our education system and then present what I see to be a plausible solution.

   My biggest problem with college is the constant focus on the past. I do understand the importance of understanding history, but what I'm talking about is a bit different. History classes seem to be losing focus on what is important history and what is not. In each of my 3 or 4 history or history based classes, our main focus in class has been what the professor deems important or necessary; in each case this meant if the professor did a study or wrote a book on a certain period of time in history, or if the teacher visited a historic location, they thought their students should learn about it too. Even if what was being taught was important, that importance was not explained and it was frustrating for me as a student to be forced to memorize the events of which I didn't know the significance. I got tired of learning about the names of Chinese tigers and African tall tales.
   Not only did I find the focus of history in each class tedious, but learning outdated techniques and materials just for the sake of history and progression. As a student in the electrical engineering program, I understand the need for many aspects of the required classes. However, when my textbook tells me that the technique being taught is an outdated and unused technique, I start to feel like I am wasting my time. You can learn about how things used to be done without having to learn how to do them. I found it ironic that in each class that requires programming they focus on avoiding unnecessary repetition and useless info, yet they are constantly teaching me redundant information and useless techniques.
   Another issue I see is that of the time required to finish each degree. Don't we want to get people into the workfield faster? If so, why are we making it such a long process? In relation to what I stated above, there are numerous required courses that are not necessary or have no relation or importance to the actual subject of the degree. My brother is studying neuroscience, yet some of his required classes include calculus and physics. Not only did he feel that those classes had no connection to his degree, but during his calculus class, in an attempt to get as much out of the class as possible, each time he asked for the practical application of what he was being taught, the teacher's response was always "you will learn the practical applications of these situations in the next level math classes" which of course were NOT required for his degree. Why are students being required to learn things that they know they will never use?

   One of my personal frustrations with the system is that of textbooks. Not only are a large portion of them overpriced, but some teachers seem to use them for their own profit instead of for the benefit of the class and students. In many of my classes we were required to purchase a new copy of the textbook or lecture material and looking back, there was no benefit to buying a new book because it came with no online access code or anything similar. It seems the teachers just wanted more money for their own written materials and they knew they would get no monetary benefit from the circulation of used books. In my physics class, our teacher got a little greedy and sold his text book for $2,600! It was a required textbook for the class and he updated it every year to try and discourage the reselling of his book. After doing some research I found previous students who said the material was exactly the same in each edition so I found the cheapest copy I could which ended up being a rental of an older version for $400. Either way I felt ripped off and come to find out, I rarely used the book over the course of the semester anyway because it was so poorly written. Students are already struggling to pay tuition, and it makes it much worse when the cost of textbooks is close to tuition each semester. Is this not a form of bait-and-switch? I've even had teachers who didn't offer their syllabus in class or online for free and made students pay $20 just to see it. High school had it right where you were lent a textbook for each class and if you didn't return it or you returned it in poor condition you had to pay, otherwise, there was nothing out of pocket. I would even be fine paying a bit more in tuition so that the university can cover the cost of writing and printing textbooks, but not to the point where it becomes a main form of income for them. I'm even fine with professors advertising their books in class to students and offering extra credit for purchasing those books and writing a paper on it or something similar, but when the teacher requires students to purchase their book that ends up being a form of profit for them then our classes start to become costly, unfair, and dictatorial.
   Lastly, our education system has come to focus too much on written tests, and less on tests of application and know-how abilities. A famous quote by Albert Einstein says "Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid." When it comes to math tests I do just fine because I can compute and solve problems using math and reason, but when it comes to a test like psychology or history that requires pure memorization, my scores start to decline. The majority of tests don't test who is the most skilled and knowledgeable about a certain subject, but who is the best at memorizing things they hear or read. In numerous classes I have done the best on labs and experiments, but been near the worst on the written tests (which I believe too often hold too much weight towards students' grades). This also always left me feeling like my grade did not represent how I felt about my abilities in that subject.

   One thing I hear from everyone I discuss these problems with is "well we've been doing this for years and if there were a better way, we would have found it by now. This is the best we've got, it is how it is." Not only is this response pessimistic, it's also very wrong. Though we have made millions of technological advances over the last few years, we still know that there is always room for improvement. The reason why education hasn't moved away from it's old ways and innovated is because it doesn't have the same pressure to do so as a tech company does. Apple has competitors, and those competitors have customers. Apple isn't going to feel content with 1 million customers so they are going to do what they can to get more, and if they get more they have to be taking them from their competitors. The more they expand, the more money they can get. When it comes to a university, there are only so many seats. They don't have to compete with other colleges for the same students to the same extent a cell phone company competes with other cell phone companies. If a university continues to get more applications than they have seats available then they feel no need to change or innovate because they don't need more students.   Schools also get government funding, subsidies, and grants which are not dependent on innovation or curriculum taught. Universities aren't affected by a free market system in the same way that product based companies are.

   The easiest way for schools to determine what is necessary and what is unnecessary is is to simply ask "why?" Why are they teaching that subject, or chapter? What practical application does it have, if any? Why are you being tested on that material? The first thing that needs to be done is to prioritize. The general education and core classes seem to consist more of things that you MIGHT come across in the workplace rather than things that you WILL come across. The required classes need to be cut down by up to 50%. Not just general education classes but the degree required classes also fall into the category of "rarely useful". I have been told numerous times that I, as an electrical engineer, will have no use for knowing C++ programming, yet it is a required class. There are probably a dozen or more classes like this so I propose that instead of requiring each one, making them electives. For example, if there are 30 required classes currently, determine the 12-15 most important, and have 6 to 9 required electives. Not only will this help people graduate sooner but it also allows people in each program to choose what within that subject they want to focus on. If a university doesn't want to lower their tuition with these types of changes, then they can use the new excess gained through less classes to invest in more student projects and new equipment. In the last 20 years we have made major technological advances, yet in my electrical engineering class we are using 20 year old equipment which is not acceptable for a top level university. Also, a program could be arranged in which those who have graduated from the university, while in the workplace or searching for a job, if needed, can return to the university at any time to take other electives to help them in their career or refresh their knowledge on previously taken classes. This encourages schools to focus on better teaching to try and avoid graduated students returning (though it would not be costly if they did.)
   As for the subject of general education classes, I believe we need to do a complete overhaul. The argument in favor of general education classes is always that they are to help us be "well rounded", to which my response is, whose definition of well rounded does that follow? Instead of requiring 3 history classes (US history, world history, humanities, etc.), why not 1? We can then eliminate classes to help people graduate faster or replace them with classes that would help what I see as being well rounded, such as money management, strengthening your marriage relationship, how to care for and raise a child, or how to maintain and repair your car, home, and yard. One of the biggest complaints I hear from students are in regard to general education classes, not only because they are unnecessarily hard, but they are unnecessary period. The 20 or so required general education classes need to be condensed to focus on basic necessities of life, such as math, language, finances, and other things that we actually will come across on a daily basis. Not only should we decrease the amount of required general education classes to 10 or less, we should also focus on more important, applicable subjects for those classes.

   In regards to written tests, we should get rid of them in all major-specific classes, if not altogether. Because classes such as history are classes of pure memorization, I can't think of an alternative way to test, but when someone is learning a skill, they shouldn't be required to TELL the university how good they are through written test results; rather, they should be able to SHOW how good they are through application of what they learned. The only class I have had in all my years of college that has gotten this right is my computer programming class (despite my opinion of it being an unnecessary class.) Each of our exams aren't written tests asking about how to code or the history of coding, but are simply a test of whether or not we can code. They give us a task and require we write a code to accomplish that task. Not only have I done well in this class because of this, it has also helped my confidence in the subject due to me being able to avoid the chance of scoring poorly again on a written exam on a subject I know (or thought I knew) that I was skilled at. In high school my physics class was graded on how well we could use the physics we learned and apply it to in class experiments. In college, my physics class is graded on how well I can do homework problems and written tests. There are labs also required in the class but they contribute to less than 10% of my grade. Despite the content of both physics classes being very similar, I did much better in high school physics, and I have done each of the labs in my college physics flawlessly, but my grades in my college physics class don't reflect my ability to do physics in real world applications due to the numerous tests and homework assignments. These types of things make people get discouraged, lose motivation and confidence, and feel like the fish in Albert Einstein's analogy.
Another point to the subject of tests is the fact that students are often not allowed any materials to help them. In each of my calculus classes we have not been allowed a calculator and in my physics class we were expected to memorize over 200 equations for the tests. This is not practical and forces unnecessary memorization and study time focused strictly on memorizing equations instead of learning how to use those equations. In some cases, textbooks and the internet should be allowed, because that is what we have access to in the real world.  Without change it is very impractical and unrealistic.
   To summarize, degree specific classes should be more specific, and general education class options should consist of more topics to help us be better citizens and "well rounded" in everyday situations. Class lectures should consist of less long lectures and more experiments and applying the lecture material. Less written tests should be administered and more application tests should be standard. Textbooks should not be used as a form of business and income, rather for its intended purpose, which is to help educate the students.  And finally, each class curriculum should be condensed and concentrated on things that are important, useful, and applicable. Through these means I can foresee a smarter generation with more skills, less student loans (due to less time in school), and more confident citizens.