Study Says College Kids Learn Absolutely Nothing In School

USA – Nearly half of the nation’s undergraduates show almost no gains in learning in their first two years of college, in large part because colleges don’t make academics a priority, a new report shows. Instructors tend to be more focused on their own faculty research than teaching younger students, who in turn are more tuned in to their social lives, according to the report, based on a book titled Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses. Findings are based on transcripts and surveys of more than 3,000 full-time traditional-age students on 29 campuses nationwide, along with their results on the Collegiate Learning Assessment, a standardized test that gauges students’ critical thinking, analytic reasoning and writing skills. After two years in college, 45% of students showed no significant gains in learning; after four years, 36% showed little change. Students also spent 50% less time studying compared with students a few decades ago, the research shows. “These are really kind of shocking, disturbing numbers,” says New York University professor Richard Arum, lead author of the book, published by the University of Chicago Press.

I can tell you literally one thing I remember learning in college. That you should hold your stretch for 15-20 seconds for optimal effects. Fitness Walking P.E. credit. Yes Fitness Walking. Yes our final exam was a timed walk around the track. That’s what stuck with me. The rest of it is just a garble of random equations and books and lectures and papers. A little tidbit here and a little tidbit there. The only thing anybody learns in college is that nobody learns anything in college. What you do learn is how to drink, how to party, how to be on your own, how to be independent. You make your best friends for the rest of your life. You clean your shit up enough senior year so that you can pull down a job. I guess the possible exception would be pre-med but even then I’m not so sure considering some of the craziest wildest drunkest maniacs I knew at school are doctors now. Just saying I’m not too shocked at this study that nobody learns shit their first 2 years of school. Of course you don’t. But you learn the important stuff.