Sheepskin and the Herd: Why Passive Student Consumption of Higher Ed Is Destroying Critical Thought

The Huffington Post - Recently, Huffington Post featured Wesleyan University President Michael Roth's article about the aims of a liberal arts education, originally printed in the Chronicle of Higher Education. While Roth's focus is the liberal arts, his argument can be extended to encapsulate the function of higher education as a whole.

Roth envisions a higher education that should provide "...an enhanced opportunity to experience the world without undue reliance on unquestioned authority while creating an opening through which we can share that experience with others."

There are various reasons for falling short of the mark, and Roth cogently points out some -- the at times unquestioning juggernaut of the academy or narrow-minded views on what subjects should be taught, how they should be taught, and why.

A more pernicious but subtler threat to an education that produces independent thinkers, I believe, is the prevailing student attitude of passive consumption toward post-secondary learning. Many of the students with whom I had studied were indifferent to their education. They saw good grades and the much-coveted diploma as the ultimate goal, the achievement of which would lead to a job with a salary and benefits. Read more.