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That's what some of my students believe, but is wrong in socialized education countries. Here, the government are my paymasters. They pay me to train students t

That's what some of my students believe, but is wrong in socialized education countries. Here, the government are my paymasters. They pay me to train students to become engineers. And they set the bar. And students need to reach that bar. So, we are not in-hoc to the students. They are not consumers paying for a service. They are in a privileged position that they are receiving an education, an investment, and it is their responsibility to reach the desired standard. That said, we also have some (not that much) pressure to pass more students, as the university makes more money.

civilized 4y ago
That sounds really, really nice, genuinely. In the US though, I fear we would fail just as badly on this front with fully government-funded universities. We have pervasive cultural problems and I worry the government would institutionalize them rather than acting as a bulwark against them. In many localities, government-funded K-12 has the exact same problems exemplified by this orgo prof's firing, except the taxpayer is compelled to fund the dysfunction. The silver lining is the charter school movement, which at least sometimes allows families trapped in bad school systems to escape to a better culture, but even in the charter system there is a good amount of exploitation masquerading as education. I think the "enlightened" libertarian view might be needed here - if your university becomes a diploma mill, it ceases to be useful to employers. Eventually, students realize it no longer provides the signaling value it once did and go elsewhere. And gossiping about the failure of standards hopefully accelerates this process.
- Kye 4y ago
  I still remember being sent to the principal in 3rd grade when the teacher said her job wasn't to make sure we learned when asked why she didn't do anything about the learning-preventing harassment happening right in front of her, and I asked what her job was if not that.

civilized 4y ago

That sounds really, really nice, genuinely. In the US though, I fear we would fail just as badly on this front with fully government-funded universities. We have pervasive cultural problems and I worry the government would institutionalize them rather than acting as a bulwark against them. In many localities, government-funded K-12 has the exact same problems exemplified by this orgo prof's firing, except the taxpayer is compelled to fund the dysfunction. The silver lining is the charter school movement, which at least sometimes allows families trapped in bad school systems to escape to a better culture, but even in the charter system there is a good amount of exploitation masquerading as education. I think the "enlightened" libertarian view might be needed here - if your university becomes a diploma mill, it ceases to be useful to employers. Eventually, students realize it no longer provides the signaling value it once did and go elsewhere. And gossiping about the failure of standards hopefully accelerates this process.

Kye 4y ago
I still remember being sent to the principal in 3rd grade when the teacher said her job wasn't to make sure we learned when asked why she didn't do anything about the learning-preventing harassment happening right in front of her, and I asked what her job was if not that.