[MD] The Academy is Evil! Here's what I'd do instead...

[John Carl]

Arlo,  I'm glad you got back to me, because I've been rolling it around a
bit in my head and wanted to add a more practical slant

[Arlo]
> Okay, well my question is how would you achieve this? What process would
> you
> propose that would bring in more "good" stuff while continuing to weed out
> the
> nutjobs?
>
>

John:

We can't take on "the academy" in isolation without also addressing K-12,
and in fact, that's where I see a great deal of the solution coming - from
the bottom up.  How?  The voucher system.  Allow parents and students to
choose freely from a variety of education systems, and I think a sort of
evolution would occur that is being stifled by the interference of big
govt/big business which are focused on  training  up drones for the giant's
hives.  More vocational schools, more art schools and I'm a fan of Waldorf,
for that matter.  Then I believe the university system is flexible enough to
meet the higher needs of such a self-empowered base of students.  Changes
would come, but they'd be natural changes of adapting to meet the real needs
of real people.

I think this bottom's up approach answers most of the questions you raise,
except this one:


Arlo:

And that's a big problem too; cost. Most people do not have the luxury of
> spending $600 per course unless that can translate into better income. I
> have
> the fortunate ability to audit classes at a great discount, so I have the
> luxury to take things I would normally never be able to justify spending
> money
> on.
>
> Bottom line, I think, is that grades is unavoidably tied to accreditation
> that
> justifies the expense. How do we change THAT?
>
>
John:

 And there, I think we need a top-down solution - but by "top", I don't mean
the university, I mean the society.  The problems you and I both see are not
caused by a sick academy, they're caused by a sick society, run by an
uncaring and unseen giant.  In this case, the academy needs to see that,
aknowledge it and work toward revolutinary change.

Ok, it's getting near Christmas.  Can I start huming Kum-bay-yah now?

John