What do you make of this claim? I have no doubt that UM is an incredible school. I mean, we all chose to go here. But many of the presentations in class examined the problems with education on campus, and offered feasible and innovative solutions to these problems. Is Richard Hersh wrong?
As a side note, I wonder if there is a way to present our class' ideas to the university. Maybe we could actually affect the way in which education on campus is carried out. There is a student group on campus called rEDesign (check out their Twitter feed) that is setting out to change the education system, however, it only deals with K-12. Is a similar group present on campus with a goal to change higher education?
I love Colbert, and love that his guests tend to skew more academic than Stewart's. A handful of others, including my Academic advisor, posted or emailed this video around. It's cute. He certainly mentions that UofM is "doing it right."
ReplyDeleteLots of reading. Lots of writing. Encouraging creativity and critical thinking. These are aspects of doing it right, right? Well color me silly, but aren't those specific things included in the mission statements of just about any place of higher learning? If there is a University that isn't making students read and write often, what the hell are they doing.
I wish I could spend a semester at MSU or CMU just to see what a day in their students' shoes is like. It can't be that different. They bitch on Facebook and Twitter just as much as my college population.
I'm glad we're doing it right, but really, how different can it be?
Chad Rhiness
Ryan,
ReplyDeleteI too, love Stephen Colbert; when I saw this clip with Richard Hersh, it really made me think about the University as a whole. I do agree with Hersh in the sense that, "The University of Michigan is doing is right." I think the University does a great job motivating its students to think critically and engage in conversations inside and outside the classroom. Especially in a class such as this one, UC 256, we are encouraged to think outside the box; to challenge ourselves and apply innovative ways of thought that enhance our own perceptions of ourselves and our surroundings. I can't imagine what my educational experience would be like if I didn't go to a school that had the resources that U of M has. I think we are "doing it right," and right now, the balance between traditional and non-traditional courses is perfect.