editorially /peaking The Shape of Education What is education all about? Classically, the importance of education was in the process of masterine suhiects that " often appeared to have had little relevanre to a person's dayto-day. life,forexample thestudvot'Latin. From this point of view, education provided the basis for the development of intellectual skills, personal values, and a "philosophy of life" that would he "useful" in a general way during an individual's life. A more modem view of education holds that the contentrather than the process--is the important component of the educational orocess. This attitude nrevails in the manv" orefessional pr&ams that have proliferated in our educational svstem. Consider. for example. the doctoral deeree in chemistry. Even if the kducationh system does not i i e n l y intend this degree to be a "practitioner's denree", industrv, where chemists rind their profesiional home, often hemost P ~ D haves differently in its interactions with students and faculty. As a result, faculty and students receive industry'ssubtle message and, eventually, acquire the same point of view. Thus. when industrv finds fault with a o m of the curriculum, the educational syskm attempts to respond to industry's problems. In effect, over time the educational system increasingly has become a training ground for a spectrum of practically oriented consumers of its products-the students. Given that the educational svstem has become relevanceoriented,surprisingly few seem-to he happy with it. Its products, that is the students, seem to be deficient hv almost anv yardstick used as a measure. Should we really borry aboui the mismatch between industry's perception of what it needs in a potential employee and what students get from the educational system? Some say yes. The need for basic skills in a modern society is universal and stands apart from industry's specific needs of the moment. Industry needs happen t o be a convenient focus for gathering information on this potential problem area. Basic communication skills, reading, writing, speaking, and thinking-as well as motivation have markedly deteriorated over the past decade. Although it isdifficult toauanti. fy such impressions explicitly, a mdisure of the general problem is illustrated bv the recent report of a "Fortune 500" company that had 3700 applicants for entry-level jobs. Of these 3700 only 800 managed to answer 55 questions correctly of an 85-question general skills test; interviews, physicals, and drug tests eliminated an additional 220 applicants. Thus the company in question was able to hire about 15%of the applicants even though a considerably larger number of entry-level employees was needed a t the time. The growing inability of our educational system to teach
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basic skills bodes poorly for the future. The Hudson Institute has estimated the minimal educational resuirements for new johsrreated in the 1985-2000 time frame in comparison to those for the iohs that existed in 1985. According to their estimates, a third more of the new johs will require a t least four years of college, and 10% more will require 1-3 years of college. In contrast, 12% fexer jobs will require four years of high school, and 22% f e u r johs will require three vean of hieh school or less. Clearlv the shift is toward iohs ;hat requiG a higher level of basic skills, yet the educational e lesser skills. svstem currentlv is nroducine n e o ~ l with Students who seik colleg~ieveidegrees appear to suffer from the same kinds of deficiencies as those who eo directlv into the work force after graduating from high schbol. c here is ample evidence that students come t o college less prepared-than the undergraduates of a decade ago; they show serious gaps in their knowledge of history, science, and literature. Ma&of thesestudentiseem unoerturbed about their shortcomings and appear more intent on boosting their made-noint averaees than on learnine new-or even oldihings: Today's idergraduates seem-to he highly focussed on courses that thev think will land them hieh-navine - . - - -iobs. More students are choosing what is called a "practical major", for example, business management, engineering, finance, marketing, and law. Although most students would aeree that academic experimentation is anoble cause, manv &e too concerned about the courses that are perceived as essential for their intended careers to take other courses. I t has become increasingly difficult to persuade students that they can major in the social sciences or liberal arts and still be admitted to eraduate business oroerams or medical schools. Perhaps ;art of the fault lies i n the preprofessional curricula itself where an attitude of "relevance" exists. Students who do stray from the narrow confines of their majors are often motivated not by curiosity about subjects, hut by a hope that the courses will appeal to professional or graduate schools and potential employers. Some observers have characterized students' concerns about taking the "right course" as a "portfolio-building behavior", that is, an attempt to establish credentials f i r potential employers, as they prepare themselves for what they perceive will be an ecouomically troubled future. Whatever the objective of education is, most observers agree that our current system is not providing students with the basic skills necessary to succeed in today's world. Proponents of both the process-oriented and the content-oriented objectives of education should be genuinely concerned. Neither is getting a satisfactory product.
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JJL
Volume 66 Number 4 April 1990
279
