Academic Incest

I am sitting here reading several packets for the first project for a upper level university business course. I am dismayed at the quality, or rather the lack of quality, of the projects from a bunch of juniors and seniors from a very distinguished university. I wrote up a collective review of all the projects which was very unflattering. Someone is wasting a lot of money educating these people because based on a cursory review of the projects little time and effort was put into it, thought was an afterthought, if at all.

The assignment was deceptively simple and very realistic. Analyze a business and propose means in which the business could be more profitable. Amazingly, or not, many of the "opportunities" were in conjunction with drinking (beer). Yes, data suggests that bars are very profitable marketing venues. Geez! Oh and let's not forget the video games! (collective groan) How sophomoric!

I suppose what is so dismaying is the fact that many of these students will secure well paying and, possibly, influential jobs based largely on the school they attended. It is scary that many of these students cannot find the mean of three numbers much less weighted numbers, are too lazy to get the information necessary to conduct a proper analysis (even if it is on the internet), do not pay attention to detail, cannot think beyond their own egocentric worlds, and are incapable of forming coherent messages much less arguments in the proper venue and format. It is scary that even this far into their education, they are so green, so oblivious to the real world of business.

I am also dismayed at the state of our educational system which has become mediocre at best and substandard at worst. We have a tenure system that stifles creativity and production, rewards those who play the system instead of those who inspire and hold accountable their students. Not to mention, what amounts to an incestuous relationship which is often referred to as accreditation.

We used to be the land of opportunity but thanks to our entropic educational system we will become a land of limited options. We are quickly and quietly being overtaken on the educational front by other nations, particularly the rising stars, India, China and Philipines yet we sit high on our false seat of superiority.

We have spoonfed our children for so long they no longer remember what it is like to be hungry. The silver spoon is now tarnished and what are we doing? NOTHING!