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> the discourse surrounding education in the last 30 years of the United States. Not that you're wrong, but TFA is talking about Canada: > I wish to speak abo

> the discourse surrounding education in the last 30 years of the United States. Not that you're wrong, but TFA is talking about Canada: > I wish to speak about third- and fourth-tier Canadian schools that are primarily undergraduate institutions. which I find interesting.

pnathan 11y ago
Yes, but the US is widely regarded as a, if not the?, leader in higher education. So if you're keen on understanding the intellectual currents of education in your piece of the world, it's wise to keep abreast of the currents in the US: they will show up in your fine part of the world in time. I'd guess in these days, the time between 'major American idea' and 'hits the rest of the world' is under a year, if not under a month. I am not sure how distant the third and fourth tier Canadian schools are from the US paradigm, or how independent they feel. I'd guess they follow the lead of American universities pretty closely. I am super comfortable saying that many UK academics have been lamenting the same thing for the past decade and more; I used to belong to an online academic community with many UK members (also in the Classics) in the 2004-2008 timeframe where the song was being sung with a different verse (but same chorus). If the UK and the US are singing a song; Canada, Australia, and the rest of the English speaking world aren't going to be far behind. Particularly in the Anglophone world (I can't speak to the others, I am sorry), ideas are shared very fast, and often the US is granted leadership, whether it should be or not. Having been deeply involved in the US university system, I would regard a great deal of the modern innovations in the universities to be a tremendous waste of non-intellectual effort, in many cases for the purposes of boosting the support staff (Gotta embiggen the headcount kingdom) or for comforting the tender feelings of immature children. I don't mean to lay all the blame on the universities; and none of the blame should lay on the student's shoulders; those who are older and have the reins of power have driven the cart to the ditch. That the load of the cart fell in is not the fault of the load, but the driver. A great deal of blame sits squarely on the United States electorate's shoulders; a non-trivial portion sits on the k-12 policymaker's shoulders; and the rest of it can be shuffled off to the flow of history, parents, the media, and the usual human condition.

pnathan 11y ago

Yes, but the US is widely regarded as a, if not the?, leader in higher education. So if you're keen on understanding the intellectual currents of education in your piece of the world, it's wise to keep abreast of the currents in the US: they will show up in your fine part of the world in time. I'd guess in these days, the time between 'major American idea' and 'hits the rest of the world' is under a year, if not under a month. I am not sure how distant the third and fourth tier Canadian schools are from the US paradigm, or how independent they feel. I'd guess they follow the lead of American universities pretty closely. I am super comfortable saying that many UK academics have been lamenting the same thing for the past decade and more; I used to belong to an online academic community with many UK members (also in the Classics) in the 2004-2008 timeframe where the song was being sung with a different verse (but same chorus). If the UK and the US are singing a song; Canada, Australia, and the rest of the English speaking world aren't going to be far behind. Particularly in the Anglophone world (I can't speak to the others, I am sorry), ideas are shared very fast, and often the US is granted leadership, whether it should be or not. Having been deeply involved in the US university system, I would regard a great deal of the modern innovations in the universities to be a tremendous waste of non-intellectual effort, in many cases for the purposes of boosting the support staff (Gotta embiggen the headcount kingdom) or for comforting the tender feelings of immature children. I don't mean to lay all the blame on the universities; and none of the blame should lay on the student's shoulders; those who are older and have the reins of power have driven the cart to the ditch. That the load of the cart fell in is not the fault of the load, but the driver. A great deal of blame sits squarely on the United States electorate's shoulders; a non-trivial portion sits on the k-12 policymaker's shoulders; and the rest of it can be shuffled off to the flow of history, parents, the media, and the usual human condition.