|
Advocate Online
The
Dialogue Question:
Should postsecondary education be available to students
year round?
 Yes, year-round
education in specific training areas will keep us competitive.
Linda Lee Massoud
*
Our formal education system was initially established
based on the needs of an agrarian society. The educational needs in our
society are much different now, and we should consider a change in the
academic calendar to meet those needs.
In the past, schooling was a "rite of passage"
of sorts. One completed a four-year degree, attended commencement, and
then embarked on the new journey of life.
Students were not in a particular hurry to finish school
because it was seen as a transitional period to be savored. Unfortunately,
our society now tends to view education as a means to an end, rather than
as an end in itself. As a result, students want or need year-round schooling
to help them achieve an educational goal as quickly as possible.
Moreover, with the rapid advances in technology, regular
and continuing update training is actually becoming a necessity. These
training needs do not follow the traditional school calendar-or even the
traditional school day. If we wish to attract students looking for this
type of learning, we must provide continuous, flexible, and up-to-date
offerings in our academic schedules that are accessible to a variety of
potential students.
Traditional education, with it emphasis on broad exposure
to philosophies and concepts, is still vital. Targeted education in specific
training areas will keep us competitive.
But to best serve the educational needs of our students,
we should offer them a broad range of educational opportunities to students
on a schedule that meets their needs. And this includes year-round learning.
* Linda Lee Massoud
teaches in the business division at Mott Community College in Michigan
and is a member of the Mott Community College Education Association.
 No,
year-round education may be an ill-considered response to online certification
programs.
Tish Allen *
Some students may need to hurry their education,
but there are no indications a year-round calendar would benefit the majority
of students and educators.
Indeed, the movement to extend the calendar may
simply be an ill-considered response to the ways in which the Internet,
with its online certification programs, has challenged our concept of
space and time in academics. We in academia should focus on scholarship
and assess ourselves on the quality of our teaching and learning, rather
than on quantitative rates of production.
Most undergraduates benefit from the traditional
pace of a college education and need time to mature intellectually and
emotionally. Education, unlike training, can not be hurried. The educational
benefits of competitive and collaborative interaction within a consistent
learning community would be lost if students attended two, three, or even,
four academic terms a year.
In addition, a year-round calendar would greatly
reduce essential scholarship and lead to increased educator burnout. If
educators worked scattered academic calendars and were not on campus together
for most of the year, communication among colleagues would be greatly
reduced and the coordination of sequential academic
work would be compromised.
We would lose the little opportunity we now have
to look beyond the "silos" of our classrooms to consider the
total educational program of the college.
We should embrace change when it serves to enhance
our
students' educational needs—and stand united in our opposition when
it threatens the quality of teaching and learning.
* Tish Allen teaches
philosophy and critical thinking at Massachusetts Bay Community College
in Framingham, Massachusetts. She has served as an officer and executive
board member in her local chapter of the Massachusetts Community College
Council.
|
