Posted on 02/28/2021 10:03:03 AM PST by SeekAndFind
Dinesh D'Souza, the Indian-American conservative political commentator, filmmaker, and survivor of the Obama virtual gulag whom President Trump later pardoned, has come up with a novel and seemingly workable solution to the problem of leftist bias in our nation's colleges and universities. He proposes a national online university utilizing a hundred or so of the country's finest educators. He states that this "Harvard-level education" could be had for around $5,000 a year while avoiding the requisite radicalization that occurs on a majority of campuses.
D'Souza's outside-the-box thinking has provided a solution in keeping with the times. Thanks to the often oppressive school shutdowns that our students have been forced to endure, online Zoom-style learning is familiar to all. At the university where I teach, Zoom lectures are followed by "break-out rooms" of smaller groups of students to handle aspects of the curriculum requiring individual input. Each of D'Souza University (DSU, perhaps?)'s hundred educators would be responsible for choosing a subset of teachers to further his subject matter. The emphasis would be on the curriculum, not on the "racist evil" of our country's founders.
How ironic would it be if the tyrannical school closings we have endured due to the politicization of COVID were to provide the spark to end the progressive bias forced upon our college-age youths?
A likely tsunami of students migrating to this online opportunity would provide massive competition to existing colleges and universities. This change might well be as significant as was seen with the advent of digital photography. (Has any of you purchased any film lately?) Certainly, the elitist legacy Ivy League education would still be available to those willing to pay the price, but even those costs would be lowered because of the competition. The incredible burden of college loan debt would be greatly diminished.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
The main question people will be asking is this — Will the credits and degrees they receive from these alternatives be ACCREDITED and RECOGNIZED by government, institutions, businesses and companies?
Youtube lectures by Richard Feynman seem to be a pretty good coverage of Freshman Physics.
Only a few likely do better in an current classroom.
I’m sure there are others in other disciplines.
Jordan Peterson comes to mind.
No more government student loans.
That would benefit academia immensely.
Possible exception for STEM majors only. NO liberal.arts.
They key thing, in my opinion, would be national, accredited testing centers.
There are already outfits like “The Great Courses” that allow anyone to attend college-level courses on video or audiotapes. Wonderful professors, wide variety of course material. You can get quite a good education in one way or another. But can you prove it?
Set up testing centers (we already have many of these for various fields). Go to the center, prove your identity, take a test, if you pass the test, you get college credit for a course.
4 years? $50,000 a year? Marxist indoctrination? It can all go away in the blink of an eye.
Harvard hasn’t been known for the quality of its undegrad teaching for a century. It is all about 1) the seal of “got into Harvard” approval and 2) connections from the time in person at the University.
The accrediting organizations will fight it tooth and nail.
People don’t realize that they have been pushing “wokeness” for quite some time. I know of a medical school they wanted to ding for lack of black faculty. They are also the ones who originally pushed “diversity” administrators.
We ought to be able to take the courses which train us for fields of work, and bypass the collectivist doctrine.
Jordan Peterson discussed this very similar thing a couple of years ago and, in fact, said, this is probably the way things are headed anyway due to the ridiculously high cost of a university education. Of course, on line learning does not translate well into many different areas.
Peterson has suggested this. I’ve listened to hours of his lectures, which are brilliant.
I like this plan. Why forgive student loans when we can do it for much cheaper?
Student loans are already forgiven for people who take jobs with the government or “non-profits”. It’s time to a nonprofit status. People who want to donate to legitimate charities and organizations will continue to do so without any special deals like student loan forgiveness and no taxation.
ACCREDITED and RECOGNIZED by government, institutions, businesses and companies? who have set the rules in their favor
Abolish tenure. Abolish financial aid. Let competition drive down the cost. Let the school’s customers (the parents) decide what they are willing to pay for.
To END non-profit status. IMHO.
Discussion on the topic here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52utWFa6M0s
Harvard hasn’t been known for the quality of its undergrad teaching for a century.
It is all about:
1) The seal of “got into Harvard” approval.
2) Connections from the time in person at the University.
You nailed it. Just substitute or add any Ivy League School for Harvard. Throw in Georgetown, GW, Johns Hopkins and the University of Virginia for full coverage of America’s eastern half.
That’s good but you still have to get around the accreditation issue. That’s all leftists and without an accreditation, companies will not look at a resume with an unaffiliated college on it.
Been there, done that.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCL_f53ZEJxp8TtlOkHwMV9Q
Not an academic link, but a very interesting JP video.
They will demand that for accreditation the studies must include all the same BS CRT and other left wing garbage coerces be included.
There will be nothing for them to fight they already own the entire process.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.