The "Dumbing Down" of Higher Education

"This is a corporation, not a social entity. Coming here is not a rite of passage. We are not trying to develop their value systems or go in for that 'expand their minds' bullshit." John Sperling, Chair and CEO of The Apollo Group (University of Phoenix)

Peeeyu! Statements like this one purport to be practical, hard-nosed, objective. But they mask a frightening self-centeredness and insularity. Those who make such statements use such dismissive rhetoric in an effort to control and limit the public's sense of its 'best interests.' As long as the corporate system (the "Man") is able to convince people that 'expanding their minds' is a bunch of 'bullshit' and touchy-feely nonsense, it can keep people in their places: unintelligent, basely-driven worker drones serving corporate CEOs who exploit faculty, students, and citizens to serve their own selfish, profit-centered ends. Sperling's comments are, in fact, bullshit. They have no historical or cultural authority. They have no truth-value and no physical referent. They are nonsense masquerading as hard-hitting reality. Their aim, as with all bullshit, is to confuse and disorient listeners.

If a car dealer said:

"this is a business, not a social support group. We don't care about your safety, or comfort, or anything else. We are not here to serve you. We are not into that 'style' or 'excellence' bullshit,"

we would laugh our heads off. Yet the CEO of a billion dollar business can say something very like this and people aren't laughing. Why?

How have we reached the point at which education is seen as "mastery of a skill set" rather than "introduction to the broader possibilities of human experience, to the story of human life on earth, and to ways of thinking effectively about our own experience--and choosing courses of action well--within that broader context"?

Has our imagination been so dumbed down that we accept passive consumption of third-rate popular culture as the new "Good"? That we see no meaning in our own work? That we see education as the first drudging step towards a life of drudging work illuminated only by our financial ability to buy more of that third-rate popular culture?

Truly, education as described by Sperling crosses the line from "inexpensive" into that uglier category: cheap, and cheapening of those who participate in it.

More soon . . .