Schools Need Personal Touch

William Deresiewics of Yale University and Mark Edmundson from the University of Virginia have come together to challenge the view of college institutions. In their segment “Is there still room for the big question in college?” on bloggingheads.tv, colleges’ true motivation is called to question. Colleges are supposed to be institutions that shape young adults so they will have a successful future. Deresiewics has a different view and says “The purpose of Yale is to produce Yale alumni”. He says that colleges are turning away from the humanities and focusing on producing alumni that can produce high level incomes as to donate to the school. In the conversation between the two professors there are many topics brought to attention. One of the main points is about leaders and thinkers.

Deresiewics’s definition of a leader is a person who inserts themselves into an institution and can rise to the top and keep the institution running. He believes that colleges are trying to produce leaders and not thinkers. Thinkers are people who challenge everything and do not go along with the system. This puts a much larger emphasis on science and math, and takes away from the humanities. He also says that schools used to encourage students and to ask themselves “What is the good life” and “What is the good society”.

Both of these questions are important for every person to ask but is it colleges responsibility to get people to ask these questions? It should be. Colleges are responsible for shaping the future generations of the world and for shaping their moralities. Students go to colleges with the intention of learning how to be successful in their adult life. If people are going to be successful they need to have their own understanding of success and not let society tell them what it is. People need to be individual thinkers rather than be robots and obey all commands. Thinkers and leaders both have qualities the world needs but they are both too extreme. If the world was made of thinkers there would be mass anarchy and nothing would ever get done. If the world was made of only leaders then there would be no passion in the world and people would lose all of their humanity. People need to have a combination between the two. The question is how do colleges promote a mix between the two.

The major point in the conversation between Deresiewics and Edmundson is big schools cannot do much to guide each student throughout their college career. The only solution to the problem is for professors to spend more time with their students. Most Ivy League teachers are too busy with their own personal research to have the time to spend with their students. It is a big deterrent to have very little to no contact between student and teacher, but Ivy League schools are still the most attractive school for high school students. People want to go to these schools because it will help their career in the future, but is a person’s career the most important thing? No doubt your career is important but is that what makes for a “Good life”.

I agree with both of the professors when they say that people just need to continue to talk about this situation more in order for progress to be made. If people talk and write about these questions it will cause discussion and force people to think about these questions. People have to be able to think for themselves and just use universities as a guide.

One of Chapman’s key attributes is its size. Smaller schools will always have a more personal relationship between student and teacher. My classes are small enough to where people notice if you are missing class. I am able to visit any of my teachers during their office hours five days a week and can email them any problem I might be having. That kind of an education allows student to absorb the knowledge that their teachers not only have about the subject they are teaching but about their own personal life lessons. There is also the inside track program which basically gives every student their own life coach. Chapman makes sure that if one of their students needs help, and not with just school, they can get it.

The problem with big schools is that there is a lack of personal touch. Teachers are responsible for educating the young people of our world but not just academically. Students should have some sort of a relationship with the person who is shaping their lives. Big universities are just creating alumni because the schools only see the students as a financial investment. The college is hoping that their alumni will have large salaries and be able to donate rather than hope that these students go on to live happy lives. Though a school is not going to be the only factor in a person’s perception of a good life or good society it can get students to try and find these questions. College professors have influence on their students and should take it on themselves to get their students to think and question what is really right.