There was a video being passed around on Twitter(X) recently showing four college students being asked on camera to answer the question, “What is 15 x 4?”
What followed wasn’t these students’ finest moments:
https://twitter.com/i/status/1754860140824789031
In case that link doesn’t work or you don’t feel like clicking it, I’ll give you the gist. The setting is what appears to be a college campus (and is labeled Kennesaw State University). On screen are three young women and a young man, who appear to be friends or acquaintances.
A woman just off camera asks the tricky math question referenced above. Blank looks ensue. One of the women (the “smart one”) repeats the question. The other three laugh and cover their faces. They obviously have no clue.
“Oh gosh!” exclaims the young man, laughing. One of the women guesses 23. The man timidly guesses 23. Another woman (perhaps clued in that the answer can’t be an odd number) timidly guesses 24.
Then the “smart one” confidently answers, “48! 48. It’s 48”. She nods her head up and down. She’s sure. That’s it.
The other three quickly agree, saying “I’ll say 48 with her.” and “Yeah, 48.” and “I’ll say 48.” They are all nodding. So confident.
The clip is sad. Pathetic even. And it’s being shared around with commentary like, “Look how stupid and useless today’s college students are!” and “These idiots are allowed to vote!”
And sure, that’s true. It’s awful. But it would be a mistake to think these student’s aren’t learning anything at this “place of higher learning”.
They’re learning to conform.
And worse, they are all receiving credentials of some kind. They will qualify for respectable jobs in fields in which they can shape the future of our society.
Not only are they stupid and ignorant, they are conformist and confident.
That should scare the holy hell out of us all.
Naturally,
Adam
One of the biggest failures of the educational system is the inability to provide a useful product. I’m fairly certain that if you sat those students down in a classroom labeled “math” on the door they’d get the answer correct. Or maybe if you handed them a scantron test. Because that’s where they leaned math, and that’s where they “use” math. Out of that element they have no ability to recall the answer, and probably won’t have the ability to connect the spoken numbers to the written input.
One of the reasons why schools need to tech practical subjects like home economics and industrial arts is to reinforce the book knowledge. Even music will introduce the concepts of counting, fractions and rhythmic math.