Education itself has changed very little throughout time. People have changed, students have changed, teacher prep has changed, the politics have changed, some even argue the rigor has changed, but the institution has remained the same.

The old phrase “it’s not what you know, it’s who you know” is now altered to “who you get to know.” Students embrace this ideology of success and colleges are now starting to figure out that students are interested in the experiential education vs. academic education. Building networks along the way, the students researched in Academically Adrift are no longer putting a large emphasis on their studies, papers, reading or academia. Students embrace the philosophy above with their peers but not with those in the classroom. Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa points out several times through their research that students are not engaging professors or academics about readings or information outside of the classroom (most interestingly noted on the bottom of the p.95 top of p. 96).

  “The roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet.” — Aristotle

So, is it the student with “no clear plan for the future?” Is education broke on this generation of students? Are kids too narcissism (I want to have fun work and travel)? Are hovering helicopter parents to blame (making all the choices for their child)? Does this generation of students have the “grit” to take their lives into their hands? Is education getting in the way of that? Is higher education worth the cost?

There are so many questions. I have been working with a human-centered design team for nearly a year now, trying to research this same problem in K-12 education. It has been a difficult process to understand and develop because most everyone has some form (positive or negative) of an experience to that has swayed their opinions on “how it should be done.”

There are no more excuses… Education has turned itself into a business that cannot fail its costumers and not feel the repercussions of that failure. We also cannot forget the roots of our world’s history in Mathematics, Science, History, and English.

Please check out these articles. I recently read both (one just came out yesterday).

We send too many kids to college by Marty Nemko

http://www.martynemko.com/articles/we-send-too-many-students-college_id1543

Fixing a Broken Freshman Year: What an Overhaul Might Look Like by Byrd Pinkerton

http://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2016/02/25/466454645/fixing-a-broken-freshman-year-what-an-overhaul-might-look-like?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=npr&utm_term=nprnews&utm_content=20160225