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Susan Hoover wrote:
> Scott E. Sanburn wrote:
>
> > Rich Manzo wrote:
> > >
> > > In lugnet.general, Chris Busse writes:
> > > > In Colorado they are testing using a LEGO building contest for
> > > > college admission:
> > > >
> > > > http://www.denverpost.com/news/news0201c.htm
> > > >
> > > > Originally found on slashdot:
> > > >
> > > > http://slashdot.org/articles/00/02/01/1135226.shtml
>
>
> (major snip)
>
> > Going to college has NOTHING to do with "initiative,
> > leadership and an ability to work in groups ". Working in the real
> > world deals with these issues, and college is about as removed from
> > reality as anything.
>
> This is true, for the most part, and for most majors. However, for
> CompSci, at least at my alma mater, there was a "team programming"
> course where your grade depended on the output of your team. I think
> the architectural students also might have had some team projects, but
> I'm not sure.
The statement that initiative and leadership, etc., have nothing to do
with going to college is dead wrong. It's not exhibited in college as
often as it should be, and that's part of the reason for the search for
better processes. People who can work in groups while still showing
initiative "succeed" in college--but success in that case may not be
defined as "graduated with a B and got an entry-level job" but rather
"took honours and several other awards, and gained admission to a
top-level graduate school with full funding/attained an entry-level
executive position with multinational corporation X." Success is such a
slippery concept, and not only is it highly subjective but it's subjective
from many different directions at once. That's sort of like "reality,"
come to think of it.
[n.b.: Note also that "success" is being defined by the universities.
That's really the main subjection to consider here.]
> No argument about the statement that college is far removed from
> reality.
It depends on what you want your reality to be. For we academics, it *is*
reality--and I'd argue that institutions of higher learning are
instrumental to creating the realities that everyone says they're somehow
disconnected from. Granted, this is an opinion from inside the ivory
tower, so it's based upon a very self-serving definition of the collegiate
experience.
On the other hand, if you're referring to the actual lived Dionysian
existence of a vast number of undergraduates rather than the actual
purpose of attaining an education, that's a different matter...but that's
also not "college" writ large, in my book. Those things merely signify
extended adolescence and aren't dependent upon the academy.
best
Lindsay
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