Not long ago I got an email notice of cheating from one of the online tools I use. When I read the report, one student copied the work of another student. The cheating was easy for the software to detect. In assignments, each student gets a custom document generated by learning software. For each document that is created, the system embeds invisible watermarks. So when the students copy any of the work, or the whole document, the grading system spots it. I responded by sending the two students in question the ‘you get one warning and then i’m reporting you to school authorities’ email. Both apologized and swore they would never do it again. I didn’t think much of it as it was a tedious assignment that didn’t add much value to the students’ lives. If I were being honest, that particular assignment could be seen as busy work. Then it happened again, but this time it was in a class that was absolutely core to the student’s future. They simply looked online for the answers to the assignment and filled them in. This one was way more concerning to me. It’s one thing if you are trying to get around something that can be argued as busy work, it’s another thing if it’s a critical skill for your future. The problem was that the students didn’t give a crap about the skill, they only cared about passing the class so they could get the ‘piece of paper’.
A current growing macro trend in our culture is the belief that college degrees aren’t worth it. The most identifiable cause is the student loan crisis where millions and millions of citizens have massive amounts of debt and have not secured the perceived career and salary entitlements to pay for it post graduation. The crisis happened because of a cultural belief in the importance of college, a ‘follow your passions’ mentality in advising, and an ill informed consumer sold on guaranteed ‘financial aid’, i.e. unlimited loans for the asking, to pay for college. The only thing that was actually correct, and the thing that is unfortunately changing is the cultural importance of – some types of – college education. The reality is that the cost has gone up for various reasons including some not outlined here, but, assuming the right degree, college still pays dividends over time. This is because credentials are still important.
College, and college degrees, aren’t going away. I think they will continue to be as long as large organizations standardize job requirements. There has to be some standard for new candidate evaluation, and the degree or other credential fits the bill for the uninformed and time limited managers across Corporate America. To this end, automated recruiting tools are built around the degree. Simply stated, the world uses filters in its job application systems. A Bachelors or CCNA will get through the filter way faster than 20 years in industry, or 5 years setting up routers. Consequently, virtually all students look to the degree as the golden ticket. The goal isn’t learning, it’s to get the degree. The degree gets the job, the job gets the big fat paycheck, and they will live happily ever after.
Of course that’s not reality. The degree is only one of the things that gets you in the door. If you have ever been to any human resources or workforce summit you’ll hear ad-nauseum that employers want young candidates to have three things. Foundational technical skills, a really good work ethic and very well developed soft skills.
Putting aside the work ethic and soft skills, which are articles unto themselves, then we get to technical skills. In theory students should want to have the technical skills. After all, they choose the degree. The logical conclusion is that they would want to do a deep dive into the work and really understand the material. In general, that’s not the case. Most will wait till the last minute to turn in assignments, do the least amount of work possible to pass, and in general, look disfavorably on anything additional over the bare minimum. In theory, these students should be identified and immediately walked out the door. That doesn’t happen simply because of the fiscal realities of modern state funded educational institutions. No students generally means no funding, so the subtle but real pressure is there to get them through.
The big question to me is why don’t the students prioritize the actual learning? I keep coming back to the fact that they don’t want to really understand the material, they just want the piece of paper, i.e. the degree. I’ve argued that the piece of paper has a big emotional component associated with it. So this golden ticket thinking keeps students doing the minimum they need to do, and in some cases, even less than the minimum if they can get away with it.
I could get on a high horse and pontificate about how this is only going to cause them issues as they move forward in their careers. This is true. So then, if you care at all as a teacher, the bigger question becomes: How do you get them to want to learn more? Unfortunately the answer is nothing a teacher can provide. The real answer simply is that they have to figure it out through ‘life.’ I know this because I’ve seen it again and again, year after year. Of the small subsets of students who really try to absorb the material there are roughly two groups. Those that are motivated by personal scholastic achievement, and those that are simply older and have lived life.
Starting with the latter, their positive scholastic orientation makes sense. They have made the simple connection that knowledge plus good work ethic equals a much higher quality of life. Often they already have a good work ethic because they had to develop it to survive in the working world.
The other high achieving group is the one whose identity is related to their own achievement. They want to do well because they self-identify as the kind of people who want to do well. They are the ‘good students’ who always strive for excellence. Unfortunately this becomes a bell curve thing, in that this population is only a small wing of the student population curve. There simply aren’t a good deal of students with this attitude, maybe 10-15% if you are lucky. Now, granted my experience isn’t that of an exclusive ivy covered campus with a huge endowment fund. I’m a community college instructor and I teach at the college people go to because it’s convenient and accepts everyone. I wonder what it’s like at the competitive four year schools? Do the majority of the students turn in all the assignments on time or early? Do they ask for help when they don’t understand something? Maybe one day I’ll find out but those are musings for another day. Today’s conversation is about students who are trying to shortcut their learning simply to achieve the goal of graduation.
The best solution for cheaters is to get them to not want to cheat. That means their motivation needs to be something other than the piece of paper. As I said, the answer to this question is related to one of the two groups who do well already. Those that have lived life.
One of the points of living life is that the idea that knowledge makes your life easier. Not the degree, but knowledge. The paper just proves the knowledge, or at least that’s the theory. The theory seems to work better with industry certifications than it does with traditional learning institutions whose livelihood is dependent on the number of students they can process through to a degree.
So then the question then becomes how do we force life into the students while also keeping them in school? I say that because often you can get started in life and then all of a sudden school becomes meaningless. I know many kids who dropped out of school with a subsistence job that met their limited early life needs, got a partner, and didn’t feel the need to go back. After all, if you and your girlfriend/boyfriend can afford to pay the bills, get pizza on Friday night and entertain each other with the frequency that young people in love do, then life is good. So what’s the point of school? As the old phrase goes, they are fat, dumb and happy.
The answer, or the first one that comes to mind, is some form of apprenticeships or work based learning. Apprenticeships, or something akin to it, should be used for every type of career and learning program we can make it happen with. In a good apprenticeship program work and school are intertwined very closely. The key is that you are benefiting from that work, i.e. pulling a paycheck. It has to be meaningful work which, in theory, is very closely related to what you are learning. The problem, at least in America, is the risk averse and economically driven corporate world. Nobody wants to integrate very young workers into their businesses as it becomes a cost center. Let’s be honest, with many/most teens, there is also an element of parenting. This is one of the reasons why apprenticeships are so limited in this country.
As an alternative, maybe it could be structured where you have to work for five or ten years at any job, but after that period of time, you are allowed to enter into school and part of your financial aid is an actual salary for going to school as long as you keep your grades up. In this way, you can continue to live as a, hopefully independent, young adult. You also get the benefits of school when you are most ready in life to truly take advantage of them. It’s like hitting the great reset switch, but on purpose, and in a good way. This is the military model and for the most part the GI bill works great in incentivizing adult learners to get the education they need.
The model would look something like this. A late teen leaves high school and starts college. They drop out rather quickly as they don’t take the rigorous work seriously. They wind up working at a food service establishment or retail job. They are making enough so that creditors will give them a car loan, credit cards, and let them rent a two bedroom apartment somewhere, but that’s about all they can afford. They may even have a child. In effect they are trapped in that life. They do that for ten years or so, and they watch their friends from high school who did have the work ethic start their careers in the professional world. They’ve finally come to a point where they have a mature work ethic. They also realize they have thrown their life away and will be in poverty forever. Then at around thirty years old, they are told they can go to school with an income at or slightly above what they are making if they keep their grades up and go into an in-demand field such as engineering and/or healthcare. Maybe you include support services like childcare. All of a sudden, there is a huge desire to learn because they understand the value of the knowledge. The concept of cheating doesn’t enter the picture.
This is one idea. The negative, and the only reason we don’t offer it, is that it’s so expensive. Society has to completely pay for someone to live for 2-4 years or more to make this happen. I do believe if we offered something like this, we’d realize the potential of so many more people, and ultimately the cost would pay for itself over time. Sadly, that’s all just pie in the sky thinking. The Bottom line is that kids are kids. They are going to take shortcuts if they don’t see the value of the work. So showing them the actual value of the knowledge they are gaining in a way they can understand and internalize and benefit from is critical. I’m going to keep trying to get them to see it sooner rather than later. Unfortunately I know I’ll never be able to teach them as much as living life will. On the positive side they will eventually learn because everyone does. Then, when they are older, and if they are able to pull off going back to school, I’ll do what I can to make sure they know what they need to know to get that better life. I’ll be happy to do it because I know they will want to learn and there is no greater joy for a teacher than helping a student who wants to learn.
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