I am afraid. I do not fear a
typical thing people fear such as a storm with heavy thunder and lightning, an
earthquake, volcano or even a large Great White Shark in the ocean. I fear what
I saw play out in a class Tuesday night, and I fear it is going to affect us
all as time marches forward. I have returned to college after a roughly 20 year
stint in the business world. I have worked as labor and as management. I have
worked as a sales guy and an order filler. I have worked as an Engineer,
consultant developer and patented creator of products. I have seen the elite
intelligence this nation has to offer, and I have seen the phrase “strong back
weak mind” all play out in the world. What I saw Tuesday night tells me we are
in for a nation that has lost both the strong back of industrial might and the
intelligence to be free and formidable thinkers of innovation for the future. I
have taken a wonderful Spanish class Tuesday evenings here at Clermont College,
it is a small class as far as body count, but it is very informative and a real
treat to take after the previous 6 years of Spanish I have taken in my life.
The class setup is a room where the tables are in a rounded pattern so everyone
in class may look forward or at least to the side and see the screen, somewhat
a roundtable type pattern, or as I would be silly and call it, “an Oval”. Of
course I have problems with schedules since I retired after having 4 vertebrae fused and 3 disks removed from my neck, so I was late to
class, but being the only person in class to show up with the required printed
materials, I was smiled at and given a bright “Hola” from the professor upon
entering the room. Of course I immediately realized I was late and grabbed a
seat hastily between 2 young ladies. One of these young ladies was in the first
part of the class with me last Semester, but the other was a new girl who had
decided to pick up part of the class by way of high school I am guessing. In
fact, only 5 familiar faces from the previous 23, and 9 new people, 8 of which
are young ladies between the ages of 16 and 22 I would guess with my old eyes
and one boy who appears to be maybe a Senior in high school or Freshman at
Clermont College. This makes for a total of 14 students in a class that
previously had 23. So, as open a classroom situation of free speaking and
banter that was allowed in the last semester class, there is nearly twice the
opportunity to do so now. I like it, even though I do not like being forced
into groups. As an Engineer I worked collaboratively most of my career, and I
noticed my 2 biggest personal achievements occurred when I was allowed to work
alone on a project. I was actually able to earn 2 patents from that time in my
life and it was truly the only time I enjoyed being a Mechanical Engineer.
However, I do understand placing the best minds together on a project can lead
to great innovation as long as you can keep the personal feelings and “Alpha”
act out. So, as class progressed I see the Professor going over the verbs,
usage, conjugation, adjectives, articles and a few other things as a light
review of last semester’s learning scope all as I take notes quietly. The young
lady next to me raises her hand, slumps over the desk and asks with a smile,
“So, is this like going to be on the test?” and the professor replied
affirmatively. I grin slightly and continue to listen to our professor go over
about 20 various verbs, irregularities, regularities how they change form, what
they are to be used with in the structure of a sentence, all while continuing
my left handed note scrawling. A trend starts to develop at about 10 minute
intervals that just about made me want to scream; after every 3rd of
4th conjugation this young lady would ask, “So, is this like going
to be on the test?”, to which the Professor would again reply in affirmation. Then,
suddenly her friend across the “oval” who seemed to be approximately the same
age started a spasm with the same loaded question, in the same manner, but in
half beats of the other girl’s question. It was like a test question chorus I
had attended instead of a class where I would actually LEARN Spanish. I was
shocked. As I listened intently, wrote my notes as I often do; paying attention
to anything written on the board while trying to absorb what the Professor is
lecturing about the topic of Spanish. We all paid a lot for that course, and I
would like to learn a bit about it and not just what is on the test. Suddenly I
flashed back my academic life when I was a youth many many moons ago. I had
Professors that operated like this: Show up first day of class, obtain
syllabus, obtain assignment and testing list, choose a seat, get a note pad out
at your cold little desk, and get ready for a full Semester of lecture. We did
not interrupt this lecture with our inane questions for fear of death or even
worse; public shaming in class. In fact you had better have a question that
pertained specifically to the subject matter you were going over at that moment
or you may hear the yell, “Clear your desks, quiz time” thus the few talkers in
class had earned everyone in class a quiz over material we weren’t even going
to read or talk about for another month. This was to prove a point. If you
dared ask a question so blindly thinking only of yourself such as, “Uh, is this
like going to be on the test”, your next test would have been impossible for
anyone beyond a Doctoral student to pass, and I mean “pass” at best. Your
responsibility was the subject, not a test.
My story is one of fright and concern to anyone of age enough to understand
what a “professional” is and what it takes to become one and make it in this
world. It is a telling of fear for a bleak future of short sighted people with
nothing to add to the greater good. It is a tale of wonderment for an old guy
like me. You see, I am not that old, but have been called “an old soul” since I
was about 16 years of age. I have seen some changes in my time that should set
the world of academia on fire, worry the nation for the next 50 years or so and
cause most of us normal citizens to want drastic changes now when it comes to
the overall education of our youth. As a man who plans to teach History to High
School kids, who also spent 20 years in the professional world, I see problems
on the horizon for all. This idea has been sinking in slowly over the course of
the last few years when I speak to my own children who have graduated and or
are currently attending high school. I have been fortunate enough for them to
attend school in an area where the schools are really top notch and rate in the
top few % in Ohio each year while being recognized by the Federal Government as
being one of the best. So, this “test problem” has not been such a huge issue
in my own home, but maybe that is because I constantly talk about learning
things, I always equate something to History, Science, Math, Politics,
Literature or some other subject. I understand educators are in fear of
standardized testing and the finances tied to those tests. I understand the
structure of school is to make sure you procure the best scores possible.
However, should teachers be judged by students? Should I really get the chance
to fill out a “scantron” on my Professor at the end of my class? Should a
parent who is not a professional or degreed in a subject be allowed to come
into a school and scream at little Johnny’s teacher because “THEY” think the
teacher was hard on him? No, these are ludicrous premises. My fear is kids are
no longer encouraged to learn for the sake of being the smartest or just to
learn, but they are in fact learning for a “test” and a test only. This means
little retention of the subject, cheating to obtain the grade because the test
is a standard which can be cheated and a future full of people who will not be
good professionals with a well-rounded outlook and education they are able to
bring to bear on their perspective professions, but in fact will only know how
to “maybe” find the easiest way that takes the least amount of effort possible
to get to the end of the assignment. Which I found in Engineering is not the
smartest, safest or most sane way to handle your work when you are dealing with
machines, equipment and other devices that are large and small and can do
anything from blow up your building, to cut off a hand or foot with a 14ӯ 17,000 RPM jet engine blade, to making you
and everyone in a building die with Cesium Radiation exposure. There is no
“Test” in the professional world you can skate through and only remember the
answers for and be done with in a quick manner to be able to keep or garner a
position with a company and have staying power there. Not at all, it is a Shark
world. You are given assignments on the first day, maybe 10 new Computer programs
you have never even heard of in your life, with which to enter product codes or
work on designs with or do FLA (Full Load Amp) calculations or FMEA risk
calculations or Safety Factors, Moment Calculations and the list can be
endless. Can you sell this product in
that nation or not, is it illegal for you to even talk to a person in that nation
about your product, do you know where these countries are located? Can you
recognize languages on the fly? Can you write a full email to a perspective
customer telling him what he wants to know about your product while nearly
guaranteeing a sale? Can you communicate within the company atmosphere? Can you
fully understand a product or service and how to describe it in your own words
and what value do you personally add to our company? These are the tests you
must pass in life to “make it” outside the world of academia. Get used to
learning a subject for the sake of the subject and not for what is on the test.
You never know what it is you may be missing that you may fall in love with and
want to learn just to learn or that may save your career later.
