December 6, 2004

• Topic: History of higher ed.

  
  

  I had a good conversation with my internship supervisor, who was a former college pres. in New Mexico, and is now the VP of “Academic Leadership and Change,” here at the American Association of State Colleges and Universities.  I was trying to find out what the major trends in higher ed. have been…and it seems there are two major factors that have led to the current culture of higher ed. 

  
  

  The first is the GI bill.  After WWII, adults needed to return to school to prepare themselves for jobs in a post-war economy.  This large influx of students who were more interested in being prepared for a job, than to think about life and the world they inhabited, began the shift of higher ed to what it is today.  The second took place in 1958 with the passing of the “National Defense Education Act.”  This act of the US gov’t put money into higher ed. for reasons of scientific research. 

  
  

  Here’s where history gets fun (man…what’s happened to me?!?!?!)  OK…here’s some trivia, who remembers what happened on Oct. 4th, 1957.  Anyone???  Come on, weren’t you paying attention in school, or old enough to actually remember???

  
  

  OK…I’ll tell you.  On Oct. 4th, 1957, the Soviet Union successfully launched Sputnik I. The world’s first artificial satellite was about the size of a basketball, weighed only 183 pounds, and took about 98 minutes to orbit the Earth on its elliptical path. That launch ushered in new political, military, technological, and scientific developments. While the Sputnik launch was a single event, it marked the start of the space age and the U.S.-U.S.S.R space race.

  
  

  It also marked the shift of higher education in America to focus more on research than on teaching, in order to keep up with Russia in the Cold War.  So…the reason myself and hundreds of thousands of other college students in America are forced to suffer through classes taught in giant lecutre halls by by dull non-engaging professors, and why professors are unable to develop new pedagogical methods of engagement because they’re job is evaluaged on research rather than teaching, was a basketball shot way above the rim.  On Nov. 3rd, Sputnik II and a dog named Laika further ensured 4-years of college drudgery when they too, were shot like a Shaq free-throw out of orbit.

  
  

  Topic: Lucrative career in the future for Dan???

  
  

  Life coaching.  How does that sound.  At first, it sounds a bit ridiculous.  Who am I to coach someone about how to live life?  However, what most don’t realize is that as an Outward Bound instructor, that’s essentially what my job was.  I was coaching kids on how to learn lessons from their wilderness experience that they could use to live better lives at home.  And I find myself people coaching people all the time, people who are down about friends, family, career, etc.  It’s just something I enjoy doing, and think I do pretty well, in part because I’m always coaching myself, trying to figure out what I can work on improving. I don’t think many people think about life as intentionally as I do, and I think that’s what would qualify me as a life coach.

  
  

  Even better would be if they had life coaches specifically for students who had completed an Outward Bound course, and were struggling to find a way to transfer the experience back into their lives…and how about this link, somebody’s done it already. 

  
  

  http://next-step-coach.com/default.asp

  
  

  Topic: New book title

  
  

  Well…College Daze managed to get into the hands of 123 people.  I’m looking at the number and trying to figure out how I did that.  I’ll admit, I gave a lot of books away.  I managed to sell about 65 of those books, which means I actually lost money, and probably should’ve paid more attention in my business classes (damn b-school).  Anyways…I’m not actively marketing the book anymore, but, I have recognized that there is a market, and hopefully the new knowledge and contacts I’m acquiring can lead to the ultimate goal of having a publisher pick up my book in the future.

  
  

  This morning on the train from Baltimore to DC, I started floating a slightly different title, or at least subtitle.  “How colleges damage the lives of innocent students.”  The word damage I love, the word innocent I’m trying to replace.  Here’s what I’m thinking:

  
  

  When properly guided, students can achieve many great things, live lives full of personal meaning, and act as morally and civically engaged students.  When I think of how colleges inadequatlely guide students to live life to their fullest potential, I think of a baby dropped at birth…The blatant mishandling of an innocent life.  The prospect of irreversable damage.

  
  

  The inadequacies of colleges to engage their students intellectually, morally, and civically has been documented and commented on by researchers and educational leaders.  The affects of this have remain largely hidden and silent.  This is compounded by the fact that most of the literature on this subject is written in a dry-3rd person manner, which strips emotion from the real human lives behind the theories.

  
  

  Human lives are gentle, and need to be handled with care.  Their growth, which takes on many forms, is akin to a plant’s.  If kept in the wrong environment, a classroom or a dark closet, they will wilt, wither, and die.  Like teaching in a classroom, writing (whether books, articles, or research about higher education, generally lacks emotion).  It doesn’t touch the heart, mind, soul, and imagination of its readers.

  
  

  K-12 education is making large strides in improving their learning environments.  New progressive schools, as well as school reform efforts such as The Coalition of Essential Schools and Expeditionary Learning Outward Bound, are using student-centered approaches to teaching, that are showing incredible results.  Many barriers ensure that similar reforms in high ed. are slow and minimal.

  
  

   

  • 2:37 pm
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