Not long ago, Andrew Delbanco, from Columbia University, visited our school to talk about his book, College: What it Was, Is, and Should Be. His argument is that American colleges have lost sight of their most important goal, which he sees as teaching young people to think for themselves and understand the world in its broadest moral and personal senses.
I agree with his priorities, and appreciated his talk, but his book seemed more like a faculty room rant than a systematic treatment of the subject.
And while it may be flip, I have an answer that does not require a book to explain. If you want to fix American secondary and university education, abolish early admission programs. Early admission robs students of one quarter of their high school careers. The perceived need to get high grades in September makes them risk-averse, they spend the first few weeks worrying (or feeling they ought to worry) about applying, and then the feel they ought to be "done" as soon as they are admitted. It takes a lot of energy, attention and sympathy to talk them out of these warped -- but understandable attitudes.
It steams me to hear college professors talk about what high school graduates can't do when they arrive as freshmen because it is the professors' employees who contribute most to that failure.
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