Mike is at the University of Canterbury, a university by the way with a very good reputation, according to the vast swathes of late teens we currently deal with in our lives. There is great demand among students from all over the country
Anyway, Mike is an associate professor and wants university to return to elitism.
He didn’t put it that bluntly, but he did use the word 'elite' and the word 'elite' is stoked with gun powder these days. It's full of charge in this egalitarian society.
I thank him because it isn't easy to speak your mind in this country. Just ask Mike King.
Grimshaw sees too many of what he calls "functionally illiterate" kids in classes. And classes is his other problem because no one actually goes to classes.
Covid taught us to isolate, not just from a virus, but from life.
He argues that because universities will fall over backwards to keep you enrolled, turning up is no longer a deal breaker.
His argument isn't actually new. The idea that kids pop out of high school completely unprepared for university has been an issue for years.
But once again, because we have decided university is a “thing” and you should go, you go whether you want to or are ready to go or not.
It's elitist nonsense of course that university is a path to success. It can be, but only if you want it to be and only if you are on a path that requires it.
Those of us that never went and never wanted to go have, many a time, made a go of life anyway.
So Mike wants a return to a form of elitism. In other words, bums on seats has led to a lot of people getting bits of paper called qualifications that lead not a lot of places and often leave you with a debt you resent.
He argues for a higher quality of learning. It should be a place you need to achieve to get to, not just turn up.
It's refreshing to hear it. Not just because he is right but because a lot of people think the same thing, but are just too afraid to say so, far less actually do something about it.
Mike Hosking is a New Zealand television and radio broadcaster. He currently hosts The Mike Hosking Breakfast show on NewstalkZB on weekday mornings - where this article was sourced.
I thank him because it isn't easy to speak your mind in this country. Just ask Mike King.
Grimshaw sees too many of what he calls "functionally illiterate" kids in classes. And classes is his other problem because no one actually goes to classes.
Covid taught us to isolate, not just from a virus, but from life.
He argues that because universities will fall over backwards to keep you enrolled, turning up is no longer a deal breaker.
His argument isn't actually new. The idea that kids pop out of high school completely unprepared for university has been an issue for years.
But once again, because we have decided university is a “thing” and you should go, you go whether you want to or are ready to go or not.
It's elitist nonsense of course that university is a path to success. It can be, but only if you want it to be and only if you are on a path that requires it.
Those of us that never went and never wanted to go have, many a time, made a go of life anyway.
So Mike wants a return to a form of elitism. In other words, bums on seats has led to a lot of people getting bits of paper called qualifications that lead not a lot of places and often leave you with a debt you resent.
He argues for a higher quality of learning. It should be a place you need to achieve to get to, not just turn up.
It's refreshing to hear it. Not just because he is right but because a lot of people think the same thing, but are just too afraid to say so, far less actually do something about it.
Mike Hosking is a New Zealand television and radio broadcaster. He currently hosts The Mike Hosking Breakfast show on NewstalkZB on weekday mornings - where this article was sourced.
9 comments:
>"The idea that kids pop out of high school completely unprepared for university has been an issue for years."
This is true for many British-derived systems. The European education systems, on the other hand, have specialised upper secondary schools that mesh with tertiary programmes (varsity, tech) so the transition from school to the tertiary sector is almost seamless. The downside of this pat arrangement is that a 16- or 17-year-old in the 'wrong' specialisation at high school is pretty well stuck there unless s/he nis prepared to shift sideways which would involve at least one extra year. However, where lower secondary schooling filters and sorts youngsters according to their ability and aptitude, that is a rarity.
I applaud Grimshaw as well for speaking up about poor literacy standards among those who have presumably passed higher secondary school qualifications. Up til now we have been informed of the shocking poor standards of secondary students underachieving. But we know need to acknowledge failure across the board.
What a very sorry state our entire education system is in.
As I have said repeatedly, we have uncritically accepting the ideology of Progressivism which is not based on academic achievement but rather the nebulous concepts of equality / equity . Right from its in the 1940s
beginnings Prog. Ed , used flowery rhetoric extolling its superiority in producing its form of social justice but always at the expense of good achievement in the basics . All our educational institutions and staff were seduced by the rhetoric and to be fair before the 1940s the proficiency exam excluded many students from higher learning . But most standard 6 (year 8 students ) were often more proficient in literacy and written work than those in upper secondary now. Because Old School' methods were so effective and now proven by science.
We need to rid ourselves of psychobbable and educababble based on ideology and get back to the basics since even if you don't attend a tertiary institution a good grounding in the basics is essential. for any job as well as coping in our technological age.
Academic qualifications ( via university degrees) should be seen as one type of Tertiary Education provision. Technical training
( such as trades) offers different expertise but of equal value. This horizontal - not vertical - picture has been advocated for many years . Society needs all these varied sorts of expertise.
What must be urgently re-assessed in NZ is the large number of students taking Social Science degrees ( Anthropology, Cultural Studies etc) - which seem to be a type of indoctrination process to advance the indigenization of universities.
Just because a person possesses a degree doesn't stop them from being stupid. Boris Johnson is the leading example of that, but some of the contributors to this platform are up there with him.
I agree with Mike Grimshaw’s comments - there is such a thing as being educated beyond your intelligence, in that we now have law & medicine graduates who would never have made it beyond their 1st year 20 years ago.
Ironically for Mike however, one could also argue that an ambiguous arts degree, like sociology, is hardly synonymous measurable productivity either. That it simply qualifies people to write or talk about lofty ideas, or keep plum pen pusher seats warm every time a Labour govt gets in & goes on a mass public service hiring drive.
Sociology is valuable to a point, but how many sociologists do we actually need, & should the taxpayer even be subsidising these would-be Platos to sit around & ruminate?
Anonymous 12:47 has the right idea. Adopt the European structure of schooling where specialised upper secondary school programmes link up with specific tertiary programmes, academic or technical/vocational.
But bear in mind that not ALL tertiary education needs to be job-specific. There remains a place for people with a degree in some 'useless' field for prospective employers to select on the basis of mental acuity (i.e. good grades) for them to train up themselves as managers and administrators etc.
The answer is simple and it has been explained often. If we paid the teachers lots more money it would all work out.
Recently heard a private school 15 year old boast she had just read a full page ( of something, unspecified). Mother said- well done darling. I am not aware of any deficit in child apart from laziness and/or inborn stupidity ( oooops have i said too much ?)
Child no doubt head for university because parents can afford it. Elitism?
In my estimation a PhD today is barely equivalent of a BA 50 years ago.They seem to be quite common, especially from a certain glorified former agricultural college. Every second academic seems to be a Professor, often of some esoteric discipline never known to academia before. Often they make outrageous public statements revealing their thin grasp of reality. "Dumbing down" is the name of the game with various strategies in place to prevent below standard students actually failing. This seems to be a world-wide trend according to comments in overseas publications. The mind boggles at the thought of AI...
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