Should Academia Be Held Responsible For Its Output?

The pastoral life in a ivy covered college is where academics think, which is their labor, to produce teachers and educated adults to join society at large beyond the borders of academia. Something unhealthy is festering beneath the greenery. We catch a whiff of it now and then. Something is not quite right with the graduates being turned out by our collegiate system.

Glance at the newspapers and mass media images of our society. High school students are failing and dropping out. Wall Street bundles money to make money trading. No one can recognize a bad loan. CEO's need help understanding ethics in the workplace. Congress believes it can bamboozle, shuck and jive the citizen. In short, the citizen will never know stupid and dishonest Congress really is.

Maybe the people who dwell or live in academia don't know what it takes to live a productive life in the real world? Perhaps lawyers, academia, politicians are set apart and above the rest of the populace. They're the elite who are really better than anyone else and deserve special treatment. In my opinion, a two by four across the head to gain their attention. The end result is that they don't know how to cope or help others cope with the real world. Hence they manufacture theories and beliefs that don't apply to the real world.

“My God, Johnny can't read!” Exclaimed the mother to the father.

“How can this be? He's in the eighth grade.” Asks the father.

Who's at fault in this situation?

• The parents.
• Johnny
• Teachers
• Academia
• School Board

The list can go on and on until everyone is on it! It is easier to blame than to solve the problem. By blaming we don't have to do anything --- someone else has to.

Someone should have noticed that Johnny can't read. No one did though! They all made an assumption that Johnny would be taught to read by some

unidentified person. That person wasn't them. Nor was the responsibility theirs.

The problem is like the person who is left standing in a game of musical chairs. No one helps or gives that person a chair --- they just stare.

Obviously something must be done:

• The first rule of doing nothing is not to be responsible for anything.
• The second rule of doing nothing is to form a committee to study the problem.
• The third rule of doing nothing is to delegate the problem to someone who doesn't understand.
• The fourth rule of doing nothing is to involve lawyers to represent you.
• The fifth rule of doing nothing is to retire on the job.

I can't help it, if it sounds like Congress. We need responsible people and institutions in our society. After all, Johnny still needs to learn to read! We need to step up to that and solve the problem for future Johnnies.

I don't see any reason not to treat and have the same expectations of academia as we do of doctors, car mechanics, carpenters, or electricians. We expect them to perform and meet our expectations.