This article, intended to make the point that women are surpassing men not only in numbers but in academic accomplishment, also makes an important point about the wastefulness of years in college for many (mostly male) students.
They don’t care in the least about augmenting their knowledge and cognitive skills. They want to have fun and get their degree with the least amount of effort possible. What is the value in all of those easy courses students take so they can coast through college? We hear all the time from politicians and higher ed proponents that a college education is vital because we’re in a “knowledge economy,” but many students graduate with hardly any more knowledge or useful skill than when they entered.
The attitude toward learning on display in the article speaks volumes about America’s K-12 education system. Students get used to the “soft tyranny of low expectations” and it carries on into college, where many schools, frantic to keep up enrollments, accommodate it.
