"THE COLLEGE ADMISSIONS SCANDAL - FRUIT BORN OF UTILITARIAN PHILOSOPHY" - by John Stonestreet and Roberto Rivera, Breakpoint.org, March 15, 2019; http://www.breakpoint.org/2019/03/breakpoint-the-college-admissions-scandal/ [AS I SEE IT: This article helps us to understand what is the real scandal in university education these days. Count on the mainstream media to focus - as they so often do - on the sensational and not stop to look at the real tragedy in all that has been revealed. Just maybe, this scandal will cause many considering college to consdier just what they are willing to go into debt for and where true value in learning lies. - Stan]
On Tuesday, the Justice Department announced the indictment of fifty people, including a pair of well-known actresses, for their participation in a series of schemes to get their kids admitted to elite colleges and universities.
According to one of the FBI agents involved, what’s been uncovered is “a sham that strikes at the core of the college admissions process.” But for many Americans, the indictments only underscored how different life looks for the wealthy. After all, even if they wanted to, not everyone could afford to participate in these costly shenanigans. Parents paid up to $75,000 for someone to take the ACT or SAT for their kids, or in some cases, to bribe test administrators to correct answers after tests were taken. The Edge College and Career Network provided these crooked services, and then funneled funds through a charity called the Key Worldwide Foundation.
By covering their tracks, many students “had no idea that they didn’t get the score that they thought they got.” And what if, in the hyper-competitive world of elite college admissions, acing standardized tests wasn’t enough? Well, colleges often hold spots open for athletes in certain sports, and for the right price, that very same Edge College and Career Network offered a different service of “bribing college coaches and administrators into designating (your) children as recruited athletes,” even if they never played the sport.
Since the scandal broke, most headlines have focused on which celebrity kid got into what school, and on which colleges have had employees implicated. What’s largely missing in the coverage is what the story says about the overall sorry state of higher education. As the 2009 book “The Price of Admission” aptly described, entrance to elite colleges has been up for sale for quite a while. In some ways the people under indictment got a pretty good deal: They “only” spent hundreds of thousands instead of giving up millions in donations.
But still, the rot in higher education, especially at the elite level, goes far beyond the often-corrupt admissions process. The very idea of education itself is fundamentally misunderstood.
T.S. Eliot wrote about this a few generations ago in an essay called “Modern Education and the Classics.” In it, he identified, even then, a “crisis of education,” that largely resulted from a kind of utilitarianism that dominated the university, what Eliot called “getting on.”
“The individual wants more education,” he wrote, “not as an aid to the acquisition of wisdom but in order to get on; the nation wants more in order to get the better of other nations, the class wants it to get the better of other classes, or at least to hold its own against them.”
Today, “getting on” is the only reason many universities exist. We tell student to go to college so they can get a job, so they can make money, so they can buy stuff, so they can retire, so they can die. There’s no ultimate “why” involved.
Of course, even if the utilitarian vision currently captivating higher education wasn’t an infectious cancer throughout the whole system, it’s been a long time since many of the courses or degrees that students pay so much for can deliver on the investment, especially given the university’s captivity to progressive ideals and a dismissal of any real debate. Often, students graduate today un-hire-able.
Even so, what’s missing is a bigger vision of why we learn, why we stretch our minds, why we explore the unknown, and why we sharpen our skills. That’s what happens when the goal is to get a credential, not become a better person.
Or as one Duke University student put it, as quoted by Steven Garber in his book “The Fabric of Faithfulness,” “We’ve got no idea what it is we want by the time we graduate. The so-called curriculum is a set of hoops someone says we ought to jump through. No one seems to be asking, ‘how do people become good people.’”
All of this means that Christian colleges have an incredible opportunity to offer a meaningful alternative, given they don’t—as too many already have—fall into the utilitarian trap themselves. Christianity’s robust vision of what it means to be human, grounded in the idea of our being made in the image of God, has been the most powerful force in history driving the educational impulse and educational innovation.
It can do so again, without bribes and without indictments.
[Now, you may remember that BreakPoint’s offer for this month is scientist John Lennox’s outstanding book, “Can Science Explain Everything?” If you’d like to download a sample chapter of his book, you can do so at BreakPoint.org/free.]
[italics and emphasis mine]
RESOURCES
"Actresses, Business Leaders and Other Wealthy Parents Charged in U.S. College Entry Fraud" - Jennifer Medina, Katie Benner and Kate Taylor | New York Times | March 12, 2019; https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/12/us/college-admissions-cheating-scandal.html
--------------------------------------------------------
PRAYER MATTERS:
"To clasp the hands in prayer is the beginning of an uprising against the disorder of the world."
- Karl Barth; "Prayer is inviting God into a seemingly impossible situation and trusting/resting in His love and grace to accomplish His perfect will in His perfect time and for His greatest glory. Intercession is the one of the great privileges AND responsibilities for EVERY believer." - Stan
------------------------------------------------------------
Praying Through the Open Doors World Watch List for persecuted believers:https://www.opendoorsusa.org/take-action/pray/monthly-prayer-calendar/
In March, Open Doors is focusing on rebuilding hope for the church in the Middle East. This month, we invite you to pray specific and informed prayers for believers in Iraq and Syria as
we remember our brothers and sisters in these extremely volatile areas.
March 15 | PAKISTAN - Pray with believers as they remember loved ones killed in
two church bombings on this day five years ago.
*Names changed to protect identities
STANDING STRONG THROUGH THE STORM - OpenDoorsUSA.org
At my first defense, no one came to my support, but everyone deserted me. May it not be held against them.- 2 Tim. 4:16
SPEAK ON BEHALF OF THOSE WHO SUFFER
The Apostle Paul knew exactly what it was like to be alone, to be deserted by all who called themselves “brothers” and “sisters.” A former colleague who has done considerable travel among the persecuted says, “It is hard to believe that Christians are the largest persecuted group in the world today. But it is even more difficult to believe that this is so seldom mentioned in our gatherings and church services. More Christians know the names of their favorite actors than their fellow believers who are in prison.”
He continues, “With every trip something in my heart breaks as I hear the echoes of suffering:
I remember the echoes of an Egyptian mother as she shared how her young boy was stuck in a haystack because she refused to deny Jesus.
I remember the sounds of weeping as fellow students in Indonesia shared how Sariman, their co-student, was hacked to death.
I remember the cries of anguish as we walked from church to church that was burned to the ground on the island of Lombok.
I remember the tears of Rebecca in Iran as she showed the picture of her father who was stabbed to death for sharing the gospel.
I remember the voice of Pastor Daniel in Vietnam as he shared how he was chained to the ground for six months.
I remember the fear of Grace from Sudan as she shared how her church was attacked and her friend was shot through the head.
Oh, I remember the cries of Caleb in Eritrea as he shared with tears how two dear friends were executed in front of him because of their faith.
And I remember the tears of Joy in the southern Philippines as she shared how her fiancé was shot to death in their church in Mindanao.
But, most all, I remember the deafening sounds of silence every time I return home.
RESPONSE
How can I be silent today? How can I not speak on behalf of those who suffer? How can I desert those that belong to the same body that I belong to and who desperately need the encouragement of my intervention?
"THE COLLEGE ADMISSIONS SCANDAL - FRUIT BORN OF UTILITARIAN PHILOSOPHY" - by John Stonestreet and Roberto Rivera, Breakpoint.org, March 15, 2019; http://www.breakpoint.org/2019/03/breakpoint-the-college-admissions-scandal/ [AS I SEE IT: This article helps us to understand what is the real scandal in university education these days. Count on the mainstream media to focus - as they so often do - on the sensational and not stop to look at the real tragedy in all that has been revealed. Just maybe, this scandal will cause many considering college to consdier just what they are willing to go into debt for and where true value in learning lies. - Stan]
According to one of the FBI agents involved, what’s been uncovered is “a sham that strikes at the core of the college admissions process.” But for many Americans, the indictments only underscored how different life looks for the wealthy. After all, even if they wanted to, not everyone could afford to participate in these costly shenanigans. Parents paid up to $75,000 for someone to take the ACT or SAT for their kids, or in some cases, to bribe test administrators to correct answers after tests were taken. The Edge College and Career Network provided these crooked services, and then funneled funds through a charity called the Key Worldwide Foundation.
By covering their tracks, many students “had no idea that they didn’t get the score that they thought they got.” And what if, in the hyper-competitive world of elite college admissions, acing standardized tests wasn’t enough? Well, colleges often hold spots open for athletes in certain sports, and for the right price, that very same Edge College and Career Network offered a different service of “bribing college coaches and administrators into designating (your) children as recruited athletes,” even if they never played the sport.
Since the scandal broke, most headlines have focused on which celebrity kid got into what school, and on which colleges have had employees implicated. What’s largely missing in the coverage is what the story says about the overall sorry state of higher education. As the 2009 book “The Price of Admission” aptly described, entrance to elite colleges has been up for sale for quite a while. In some ways the people under indictment got a pretty good deal: They “only” spent hundreds of thousands instead of giving up millions in donations.
But still, the rot in higher education, especially at the elite level, goes far beyond the often-corrupt admissions process. The very idea of education itself is fundamentally misunderstood.
Today, “getting on” is the only reason many universities exist. We tell student to go to college so they can get a job, so they can make money, so they can buy stuff, so they can retire, so they can die. There’s no ultimate “why” involved.
Of course, even if the utilitarian vision currently captivating higher education wasn’t an infectious cancer throughout the whole system, it’s been a long time since many of the courses or degrees that students pay so much for can deliver on the investment, especially given the university’s captivity to progressive ideals and a dismissal of any real debate. Often, students graduate today un-hire-able.
Even so, what’s missing is a bigger vision of why we learn, why we stretch our minds, why we explore the unknown, and why we sharpen our skills. That’s what happens when the goal is to get a credential, not become a better person.
All of this means that Christian colleges have an incredible opportunity to offer a meaningful alternative, given they don’t—as too many already have—fall into the utilitarian trap themselves. Christianity’s robust vision of what it means to be human, grounded in the idea of our being made in the image of God, has been the most powerful force in history driving the educational impulse and educational innovation.
It can do so again, without bribes and without indictments.
[Now, you may remember that BreakPoint’s offer for this month is scientist John Lennox’s outstanding book, “Can Science Explain Everything?” If you’d like to download a sample chapter of his book, you can do so at BreakPoint.org/free.]
[italics and emphasis mine]
RESOURCES
On Tuesday, the Justice Department announced the indictment of fifty people, including a pair of well-known actresses, for their participation in a series of schemes to get their kids admitted to elite colleges and universities.
According to one of the FBI agents involved, what’s been uncovered is “a sham that strikes at the core of the college admissions process.” But for many Americans, the indictments only underscored how different life looks for the wealthy. After all, even if they wanted to, not everyone could afford to participate in these costly shenanigans. Parents paid up to $75,000 for someone to take the ACT or SAT for their kids, or in some cases, to bribe test administrators to correct answers after tests were taken. The Edge College and Career Network provided these crooked services, and then funneled funds through a charity called the Key Worldwide Foundation.
By covering their tracks, many students “had no idea that they didn’t get the score that they thought they got.” And what if, in the hyper-competitive world of elite college admissions, acing standardized tests wasn’t enough? Well, colleges often hold spots open for athletes in certain sports, and for the right price, that very same Edge College and Career Network offered a different service of “bribing college coaches and administrators into designating (your) children as recruited athletes,” even if they never played the sport.
Since the scandal broke, most headlines have focused on which celebrity kid got into what school, and on which colleges have had employees implicated. What’s largely missing in the coverage is what the story says about the overall sorry state of higher education. As the 2009 book “The Price of Admission” aptly described, entrance to elite colleges has been up for sale for quite a while. In some ways the people under indictment got a pretty good deal: They “only” spent hundreds of thousands instead of giving up millions in donations.
But still, the rot in higher education, especially at the elite level, goes far beyond the often-corrupt admissions process. The very idea of education itself is fundamentally misunderstood.
T.S. Eliot wrote about this a few generations ago in an essay called “Modern Education and the Classics.” In it, he identified, even then, a “crisis of education,” that largely resulted from a kind of utilitarianism that dominated the university, what Eliot called “getting on.”
“The individual wants more education,” he wrote, “not as an aid to the acquisition of wisdom but in order to get on; the nation wants more in order to get the better of other nations, the class wants it to get the better of other classes, or at least to hold its own against them.”
Today, “getting on” is the only reason many universities exist. We tell student to go to college so they can get a job, so they can make money, so they can buy stuff, so they can retire, so they can die. There’s no ultimate “why” involved.
Of course, even if the utilitarian vision currently captivating higher education wasn’t an infectious cancer throughout the whole system, it’s been a long time since many of the courses or degrees that students pay so much for can deliver on the investment, especially given the university’s captivity to progressive ideals and a dismissal of any real debate. Often, students graduate today un-hire-able.
Even so, what’s missing is a bigger vision of why we learn, why we stretch our minds, why we explore the unknown, and why we sharpen our skills. That’s what happens when the goal is to get a credential, not become a better person.
Or as one Duke University student put it, as quoted by Steven Garber in his book “The Fabric of Faithfulness,” “We’ve got no idea what it is we want by the time we graduate. The so-called curriculum is a set of hoops someone says we ought to jump through. No one seems to be asking, ‘how do people become good people.’”
All of this means that Christian colleges have an incredible opportunity to offer a meaningful alternative, given they don’t—as too many already have—fall into the utilitarian trap themselves. Christianity’s robust vision of what it means to be human, grounded in the idea of our being made in the image of God, has been the most powerful force in history driving the educational impulse and educational innovation.
It can do so again, without bribes and without indictments.
[Now, you may remember that BreakPoint’s offer for this month is scientist John Lennox’s outstanding book, “Can Science Explain Everything?” If you’d like to download a sample chapter of his book, you can do so at BreakPoint.org/free.]
[italics and emphasis mine]
RESOURCES
"Actresses, Business Leaders and Other Wealthy Parents Charged in U.S. College Entry Fraud" - Jennifer Medina, Katie Benner and Kate Taylor | New York Times | March 12, 2019; https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/12/us/college-admissions-cheating-scandal.html
--------------------------------------------------------
|
PRAYER MATTERS:
"To clasp the hands in prayer is the beginning of an uprising against the disorder of the world."
- Karl Barth; "Prayer is inviting God into a seemingly impossible situation and trusting/resting in His love and grace to accomplish His perfect will in His perfect time and for His greatest glory. Intercession is the one of the great privileges AND responsibilities for EVERY believer." - Stan
------------------------------------------------------------
Praying Through the Open Doors World Watch List for persecuted believers:https://www.opendoorsusa.org/take-action/pray/monthly-prayer-calendar/
In March, Open Doors is focusing on rebuilding hope for the church in the Middle East. This month, we invite you to pray specific and informed prayers for believers in Iraq and Syria as
we remember our brothers and sisters in these extremely volatile areas.
March 15 | PAKISTAN - Pray with believers as they remember loved ones killed in
two church bombings on this day five years ago.*Names changed to protect identities STANDING STRONG THROUGH THE STORM - OpenDoorsUSA.org
At my first defense, no one came to my support, but everyone deserted me. May it not be held against them.- 2 Tim. 4:16
SPEAK ON BEHALF OF THOSE WHO SUFFER
The Apostle Paul knew exactly what it was like to be alone, to be deserted by all who called themselves “brothers” and “sisters.” A former colleague who has done considerable travel among the persecuted says, “It is hard to believe that Christians are the largest persecuted group in the world today. But it is even more difficult to believe that this is so seldom mentioned in our gatherings and church services. More Christians know the names of their favorite actors than their fellow believers who are in prison.”
He continues, “With every trip something in my heart breaks as I hear the echoes of suffering:
I remember the echoes of an Egyptian mother as she shared how her young boy was stuck in a haystack because she refused to deny Jesus.
I remember the sounds of weeping as fellow students in Indonesia shared how Sariman, their co-student, was hacked to death.
I remember the cries of anguish as we walked from church to church that was burned to the ground on the island of Lombok.
I remember the tears of Rebecca in Iran as she showed the picture of her father who was stabbed to death for sharing the gospel.
I remember the voice of Pastor Daniel in Vietnam as he shared how he was chained to the ground for six months.
I remember the fear of Grace from Sudan as she shared how her church was attacked and her friend was shot through the head.
Oh, I remember the cries of Caleb in Eritrea as he shared with tears how two dear friends were executed in front of him because of their faith.
And I remember the tears of Joy in the southern Philippines as she shared how her fiancé was shot to death in their church in Mindanao.
But, most all, I remember the deafening sounds of silence every time I return home.
RESPONSE
How can I be silent today? How can I not speak on behalf of those who suffer? How can I desert those that belong to the same body that I belong to and who desperately need the encouragement of my intervention?
|
This article explains going to college has become more about getting a credential in order to "get on" in life rather than getting wisdom to better one's self. I think each person has to decide for themselves why they are pursuing higher education. Two people can pursue the same degree and yet have two outcomes - one can challenge his or herself while the other simply coasts by and relies on "C's get degrees". I learned the hard way that the former way is better. I hope the recent scandals mentioned in this article do cause people to rethink the reason behind education and choose for themselves to do it for the right reason.
ReplyDelete-herb