The Learning Commodity

The September issue of Spectra had a number of great articles about teaching in it. One of the ones that jumped out at me the most was Roger Smitter's commentary on education as a new commodity. Smitter argues that we as educators face the challenge of students (and more importantly, parents) who expect nothing more from college that job preparation. These constituents are only interested in "learning" a skill set that will land them a better job when they graduate. Smitter concedes that the rising cost of education should share part of the blame as should college recruiters who laud the value of their school by emphasizing job placement rates. What I most appreciated about his article was that we as communication faculty are in a great position to respond. "We have a long tradition of teaching core values while also addressing contemporary needs."

I have complained on this blog before that I don't like the trend in terms of trying to attach a dollar sign to what students get from a class (as well as the assessment techniques that tend to drive this trend). I am challenged by Smitter's final call, "Teach them well. Help them see that what we offer can't be commoditized." Easy enough to say. Two of my classes are less skills-based, which makes it a little easier in those classes. One of my classes is all about skills, and in that class, students were practically falling out of their chairs with boredom during the day that we talked about the big picture. However, I like that challenge more than just sitting back and going with the flow (i.e., being "flushed").