Issues and challenges in modern education

¶ … educated?" (Kohn, 2003) outlines the author's position that modern American institutions of higher education provide a very narrow approach to intellectual and personal development. In her view, contemporary educational practices emphasize knowledge and skills that are substantially associated with social status as much as with genuine intellectual development. She suggests that the goal of modern education should be directed more toward the goal of helping students develop in comprehensive ways such as in social and communication skills as much as toward the absorption of specific substantive information and technical skills. In that regard, the author also argues that one of the most important aspects of education should be helping students become competent and caring adult members of society.

Kohn takes a very pessimistic view of modern education and equates it with a training process designed primarily (or even exclusively) to benefit the corporate needs of business institutions. With respect to the actual process of academic instruction used in American schools, the author believes that most academic programs in the United States still rely much too heavily on essentially the same instructional and learning methods and types of teaching materials as those used since the first public schools were established more than two centuries ago. More specifically, the predominant method of academic instruction today is still passive lecture and textbook reading assignments in conjunction with which rote memorization is strongly emphasized.

More generally, the author takes the position that the entire system of American academic system reflects a preoccupation with status and reputation that actually has very little to do with the actual relative quality of the education available at different institutions of higher learning. In that regard, the most highly respected academic institutions have long legacies of upper class associations and affiliations that is the basis of their distinction more than their academic quality.

Article Review

Kohn does make some very valid observations about American academic systems and programs. The type of specialization and very narrow focus on the absorption of information is highly geared toward professional development. That is not necessarily a bad thing but there is no reason why preparing young students for continuation to more advanced levels of education or professional development should ignore more general aspects of development in the process. It is true that there is not necessarily as much of a correlation between academic performance and other components of intellectual and social development among many superior students in the U.S.

In fact, as Kohn suggests, in many cases, some of the best students lack desirable aspects of social development such as social skills, general perspective, common sense, social maturity, and (especially) a moral core. Even worse, in some cases, superior academic performance sometimes provides high-performing students with a sense of entitlement that outweighs what might be considered very basic concerns. Just as professional athletes often violate social and legal rules, superior students may lag behind in their moral reasoning skills because the positive feedback associated with their academic achievements excuses transgressions that poor students could not expect to get away with as easily. At the other end of the spectrum are students who pursue academic success precisely because they wish to overcompensate for other (i.e. non-academic) deficiencies.

However, Kohn might have phrased some of her criticisms in terms that are too absolute rather than in a flexible manner that recognizes her criticisms without overgeneralization. For one example, it may be true that contemporary education emphasizes career development too much while giving too little attention to equally important aspects of personal development in non-academic areas that are undoubtedly beneficial to society. On the other hand, it may be an exaggeration to conclude that contemporary American education is little more than an employee development system for the benefit of corporate for-profit entities.