“The education of ‘nontraditional’ students has been a subject fraught with cognitive dissonance in America, where much of the discussion surrounding higher education is unduly preoccupied with matters of prestige and exclusivity. In this context, leaders of for-profit colleges have held up their neglected, underserved student populations as a badge of moral seriousness. ‘What we do is educate people who would never have a shot, thank you very much,’ a former Kaplan executive said in a recent Washington Post article. In effect, the for-profit schools have accused their prestigious critics of looking at the world of working-class, adult students and saying, for all intents and purposes, ‘Let them eat cake.’ And despite their many flaws, the for-profits have a point here. That’s why the country needs more institutions like Western Governors — innovative, low-cost schools offering degrees of demonstrable value — that put both the snobs and the profiteers to shame.”
— I’m not saying I didn’t love St. John’s, but the example of Western Governors University looks more like the future of education than anything involving the liberal arts — and that’s a good thing. On the other hand, I think it’d be really cool if more schools adopted the model of Deep Springs College and built their curricula around “the three pillars of academics, labor, and self-governance”.
(Source: washingtonmonthly.com)
