John Winfrey

Us Public Higher Education Suffers from Institutional Narcissism John Winfrey

As a human is composed of living cells and diseased cells may contribute to diseased human behavior, so institutions are composed of humans and diseased humans may contribute to diseased institutional behavior. In humans, the disease narcissism often leads to disregard of the rights and boundaries of others, and humans may act out destructively against others. US public Higher education has similarly become narcissistic and acts out destructively against its own students. In particular, we have had 50 years of over-production of graduate students. A higher education degree used to be of lifelong value. These days those degrees have been deflated in value, a bubble has been created, and degrees no longer lead to a better life. The bubble was created to serve the selfish interests of faculty and administrators. We have had several decades of K-12 malpractice. The majority of US students are entering College with what used to be a fifth grade education. Recent generations have learned mistrust of institutions, are not interested in 60+ hour job commitments, and are seeking mostly jobs requiring at most a bachelor's degree. Bad news: All signs point to an implosion in graduate school education. Good news: As the demand for college degrees changes and wanes, there may be an opportunity for reform that is student- and community-centered.