Education has recently and continuously been impacted by increasing tuition costs, COVID-19, changes to the SAT, open notes tests, strains on mental and physical health, early start times, counterproductive courses and technological advances. Could this mean the end of the education system as we know it?

The value of college education is undoubtedly decreasing, yet the price of college keeps increasing and students keep coming back. Retention rates had dropped immensely at the start of the pandemic, in large part because schools and colleges across the country canceled in-person instruction.

I can’t think of anything else that higher-education does a better job at than teaching students to use a keg. That is precisely the problem. You have more students worried about tonight’s party rather than their law or biology paper. There’s got to be a way to make students more excited to go to class.

How the professors teach is one part of the issue. The concept of closed-book tests is unnecessary and counterproductive. There won’t come a time in anyone’s professional career where someone can’t ask for the help of a coworker on an assignment or project. Grade point averages seem to rely on who can memorize the most.

General education requirements are another problem. A student enrolled as a finance major shouldn’t be required to take a science course or know what year Charles Darwin wrote “On the Origin of Species.” I respect the idea of exploration, but in a lot of cases it comes at the expense of one’s GPA. There are ways for students to explore other majors while still being engaged in their interests and coursework.

Albert Einstein said “The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge, but imagination.” He also said, “Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school.” It could be argued that we learn more outside the classroom than within.

The world evolves but it seems that college curriculums do not. Syracuse University and other schools, not just colleges, should implement a variety of different classes such as entrepreneurship, professional etiquette, sales, artificial intelligence and ethics courses. These courses will help to teach and reinforce topics and concepts that students will actually need to use in their professional careers after they graduate from college or their higher education institution.

All the times I have almost fallen asleep in class it’s due to the teacher or professor lecturing for an hour straight. Contrastly, all the classes I was excited to go to, the teachers or professors connected with students using real world examples, not just lecturing or using videos.

Better education can start with professors implementing a range of activities in courses, letting professors have freedom in developing future professionals in their respective fields and allowing creativity and imagination to flow. Additionally, there should be smaller class sizes and more collaboration.

Later start times would also be in students’ best interest. A University of Minnesota study from 2014 found that later start times for high school students (which allowed most students to get more sleep) was correlated with better test scores, fewer car crashes on the way to school, as well as better mental and physical health. Certainly this can be applied to all students, young and old.

There’s no doubt that a student with a college degree is better off, at least financially, than without one. Colleges and universities should work to maximize how much more prepared students are for life upon graduation. If nothing else, an enhanced curriculum will be more enjoyable for both instructors and students.

Aiden Walsh is a freshman finance major. His column appears biweekly. He can be reached at awalsh05@syr.edu.

Published on February 22, 2022 at 8:54 pm