Why College is Frustrating

I don't know what kind of college you were at, but it may have an organization with a euphemistic name that suggests it is not engaged in teaching remedial skills which teaches remedial skills. Ours was the Academic Resource Center, I think. I don't know if we had anyone who specialized in teaching hand writing, largely because I don't think hand writing was a deliverable anywhere in school, but we certainly taught study habits, time management, and the math students should have learned in high school.

I could not agree more. At my university there was suppose to be a place for undergraduates to research and work together, but sadly the unviersity turned it into a conference room. Most of my friends in CS that are terrible programmers were simply never taught the proper way to program or even remotely how to tackle a problem. Its sad to tutor other students and they understand the problem but they have no idea where to start or how to implement a solution. I think CS programs should definately teach how to problem solve as opposed to just finish the project for the grade. My parents enforced good study habits in me and it is apparent in my friends/roommates that did not have it instilled in them. If universities did teach students how to study and manage time I am sure a lot of the "bad" students would be right on up there. Lastly I also find it very hard to believe how many crappy professors are still allowed to teach. In fact I had one professor in a basic studies class say "I DON'T CARE WHAT YOU SAY ABOUT ME! CALL ME AN ASSHOLE! IM TENURE! I DON'T CARE!". I've also had professors that simply cannot teach at all. You could look around the room and see blank stairs on everyones face and yet the professor just keeps on going...

So far, this article and all the comments here are missing the main point, which isn't identifying the problem; a gazillion people in the Chronicle of Higher Education have said virtually the same thing at various times.

The real problem is solving the problem, which requires changing the incentives that drive professors. At the moment, hiring and tenure decisions at virtually all universities (and all the big ones you've heard of) are made mostly on research and publication. Teaching simply doesn't count for much. Therefore, the people who succeed in getting hired and getting tenured optimize for what they're being judged on: research and publication. Teaching is secondary.

Once you've realized this incentive problem, the question becomes, "How do you change the incentives?" I have no good answers for that, but it's the real question you should be asking if you're genuinely interested.

(EDIT: And, by the way, I'm a grad student at a big public school. I get to hear about this kind of stuff all the time.)

I agree with that college is frustrating, although I disagree that the problem lies within lack of facilities or failure to teach proper study techniques or handwriting skills. Rather I think the pervasive problem with contemporary pedagogy is that it has turned, largely, into an enterprising, profiteering business. With that shift, educational institutions switched their focus from graduating good, prepared students to focusing on obtaining large grants for research projects—research projects that bring in far more than a student's tuition.

Also, I think it's worth mentioning that one basic that everyone should be taught is grammar. Not to be a jerk here, but you'd be more effective in communicating your point if it wasn't littered with grammatical errors.

Well, some colleges do just what you say---teaching writing and study skills to the students who need it. But in my experience, a lot of the students have been taught study skills in the past, but it never stuck because they didn't really need them yet... and in those cases getting a bad or mediocre grade really is just the swift kick they need.

As for reinventing the wheel, are you suggesting that the professors should try to grab someone else's slides and lectures and teach from them? I promise that this does not work very well. Aside from being drier and less engaging to read someone else's stuff, it means that they aren't tailored to the prof and to the class. And a good chalkboard lecture beats slides any day, anyhow.

Who cares if college is frustrating. Stop being a victim. I had the worse teachers, but I did whatever it took to get an A. I didn't care if the teacher didn't have an interesting teaching style i put that aside and tried to learn the material he/she taught. In college, you need the "superficial" good grades just to get your foot in the door.I was autodidactic and learned all the things that really interested me in college on my own. People need to stop being wimps and try harder.

"Yes, I am saying colleges should teach study habits, time management and hand writing."

I agree these are good things, but shouldn't they be taught before college?

Article aside, I really dig the format of your blog. It's refreshing to see straight text without 5000 "promote-me" buttons and misc other bullshit.

Can you please proofread your writing, or at least run a spellchecker on it, before presenting it to the world? There are multiple spelling and grammatical errors in each paragraph, and it's pretty much completely distracting.

More than Handwriting I think they should teach shorthand for note taking.