The Future Of Education

It depends of the goal they want to reach. Long ago I had a bachelor degree in Art and Philosophy. When I got it in the 70's the global percentage of the population with a bachelor degree in France was about 20%. Then the goal announced has been "everybody should have a bachelor degree" and it is about 80% actually. To reach this goal, you have to lower a lot the standard : less philosophy, no more compulsory Latin, no more grade repetition... Maybe I would have been able to live without learning Latin, but I am thankful to have had 8 hours of philosophy per week. When you speak of analytical skills, there is nothing better than philosophy to give all the keys permitting to a student to think by himself, to analyze, to stand back and to take a decision. The result is that a bachelor degree is worth nothing today, and these teens have to go to college or graduate schools to find a job. The second ones have strong selection criteria and are accepting only the better bachelors. Universities are not allowed to close their doors and everybody might register, but it does not mean that there is no selection, and a massacre happens during the first and second years where students doing spelling errors at each line and unable to do a pertinent reasoning are eliminated. You have colleges with amphitheaters able to welcome 2000 students during the first year, but a 2d year amphitheater has between 200 and 500 seats, and at master level it is often a classroom of 40. I do not speak of PhDs : we were 2 authorized to sustain a PhD in my specialty in the 80's, and it is approximately the same number today. Students at PhD level are probably better researchers today than we were, but a lot more people have been left on the road, who were in better position in the 70's when the school orientation was done before entering in high school : it is better to be an apprentice at 14 or 15 with a job at the end, than to have a degree with no value at 18 and to lose 1 or 2 years more in a college. I do not like the idea of a cut favoring science and maths against literature and arts. The opposite would be wrong too. I think that it is a choice that should be left to the student.