ParisTampaBlog

“In his 2006 book, ‘Our Underachieving Colleges,’ President Bok cited a study that found that students remembered only 42 percent of what they heard in a lecture by the end of the lecture and only 20 percent a week later. He argued that students learn far more when they are actively engaged in activities related to the course.”

[To read the complete article from the Boston Globe of 2/8/07 go to: Real World Studies.]

The curriculum overhaul committee at Harvard is proposing that the college undergraduates be given a taste of the “real world.” Isn’t this Bill Murray as Phil Connors in the movie, Groundhog Day, all over again?

In this instance how does one break the cycle of repeating the same nostrum once again, that kids need to be actively engaged? With all due respect to interim President Bok, isn’t it a no-brainer that “students learn more when actively engaged?” In fact, is there any other way to learn? Perhaps President Bok needs to be taken into the real world himself.

The problem, as I see it, and not only at Harvard, but at the feeder high schools attended earlier, is that college professors and high school teachers are themselves probably not in the “real world.” Being mostly book people themselves how can one expect them to help their students experience a world of which they are ignorant?

If Harvard were really interested in their undergraduates becoming real world knowledgeable they would adopt work/study programs. That is, they would demand that students combine reading books, writing papers, and attending lectures with “real world” activities.

For example, Boston, as much as any of our large cities, could make great use of  Harvard undergraduates out there in the "real world" neighborhoods. Then, no longer lecture attending college students they could become important role models in the lives of imoverished and otherwise disadvantaged kids who suffer from being mostly without capable and caring adults in their lives.

This entry was posted on February 8, 2007 at 8:05 pm and is filed under Education. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site.