If we are counting an 8 pack of socks as 16 items of clothing, for example, 68 seems a sensible number. Counted otherwise the number sounds dubiously high.
As a current PhD. student in the liberal arts my position likely veers significantly from the mean around here. But having read a lot of these sorts of "higher education is in tatters" sorts of discussions--and tending toward skepticism about the general fitness of most humans to be involved in higher education of any kind--I find myself pushing back against the critics. My classroom experience as a philosophy and psychology major at a mid-tier, state university left very little to be desired. I'm not sure I am capable of being crafted into a good employee, whatever the skills of the institution attempting the task. But I learned a whole lot about the world, how to reason, how to communicate, etc. And I wasn't even a particularly good student.
As an undergraduate in our college of arts the average student, regardless of major, was required to write scores of pages per semester, all to be read and responded to by someone more than qualified to critique even the especially precocious 19 year old. Most classes were of less than 20 students and involved lively discussion with a professor who, more often than not, was well published and read in his or her field. Setting aside employment for the moment, I just can't imagine a much better way to grow a person.
There are certainly problems with higher education--too many to list really. But the core of what universities do, as it relates to undergraduate education, they do pretty well by and large. It is true, due largely to economic distortions and poor alternatives, too many who would be better suited by something more vocational go to four year universities looking for something the university is not designed to provide. Hence the present discussion I suppose. But for those who are looking for education in the broader sense, I find universities to be serving as advertised.
As a current PhD. student in the liberal arts my position likely veers significantly from the mean around here. But having read a lot of these sorts of "higher education is in tatters" sorts of discussions--and tending toward skepticism about the general fitness of most humans to be involved in higher education of any kind--I find myself pushing back against the critics. My classroom experience as a philosophy and psychology major at a mid-tier, state university left very little to be desired. I'm not sure I am capable of being crafted into a good employee, whatever the skills of the institution attempting the task. But I learned a whole lot about the world, how to reason, how to communicate, etc. And I wasn't even a particularly good student.
As an undergraduate in our college of arts the average student, regardless of major, was required to write scores of pages per semester, all to be read and responded to by someone more than qualified to critique even the especially precocious 19 year old. Most classes were of less than 20 students and involved lively discussion with a professor who, more often than not, was well published and read in his or her field. Setting aside employment for the moment, I just can't imagine a much better way to grow a person.
There are certainly problems with higher education--too many to list really. But the core of what universities do, as it relates to undergraduate education, they do pretty well by and large. It is true due largely to economic distortions and poor alternatives too many who would be better suited by something more vocational go to four year universities looking for something the university is not designed to provide. Hence the present discussion I suppose. But for those who are looking for education in the broader sense, I find universities to be serving as advertised.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/07/marijuana-dui-bill-...