I began teaching in 1993, as a TA at Arizona State University, the year before I went to the Peace Corps, where I was also a teacher. I’ve worked as a tutor, teacher, trainer and guide, most recently as an adjunct instructor for the accredited online university American Public University System (APUS). There I teach beginning French and Spanish, starting in 2007.
The university at that time was still quite new and online universities in general have had a difficult time overcoming their poor reputation. Still, as an avid learner myself, but one who didn’t really enjoy the classroom experience, it was a natural fit for me. Change in the cyber-world is the greatest given, and education is no exception to this rule. I felt I’d adjusted over the years fairly well. I was apparently quite mistaken.
Jumping through new hoops with the ever-changing demands of the ever-changing administration is not for the veteran teacher, and I believe they are coming to rely heavily on that fact. In the last year the turnover is something I haven’t experienced since age 16, working at Shoney’s Big Boy.
This university caters primarily to our military professionals and that was a mixed blessing for me. On the one hand, the students are more diligent and respectful than those I experienced teaching high school or a typical community college or university. On the other hand, I did not feel comfortable being employed by a tentacle of the military industrial complex. In hindsight perhaps I should’ve taken that misgiving more seriously.
Most recently I’ve been ordered to not correct student grammar. This was after last year being ordered to not only correct student grammar in the target language (French or Spanish) but also in English, as many students were deficient and the cultural forums are written in English. We’ve also been ordered to actively monitor students’ performance and “engagement” and make weekly contact with inactive students. This is masked in concerns of “retention” though to me it looks more like accustoming the student to regular surveillance. I was also informed I was being monitored with equivalent consistency.
When I try to voice my concerns about normalizing such practices I’m met with comments like “get on board or get out” and “we’re all in this Brave New World together.” I wish I were exaggerating. I doubt these colleagues have any idea the gravity of the reference they make so off-the-cuff.
Apparently, to correct grammar for beginning foreign language students, is being “critical” and “negative”. It was actually likened to spanking. Again, I wish I were exaggerating.
What I most wish to share with these colleagues fearing for their jobs to the point of following whatever new command is coming down the pipeline without question: Do your research. You are supposed to be academics. Do you know who these orders are coming from? Have you heard of the Tavistock Institute? Do you knowingly follow the designs of the Council of Foreign Relations? Do you know why? Do you know their end game? Are you willfully or blindly engineering your own demise? Do you care?
Have you felt the shaming and manipulative techniques they are using to make sure you fall in line with the program, or to weed you out if you don’t?
Because, I have.
The Underground History of American Education
http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-dumbing-down-of-america-by-design/5395928
Kensho Homestead 
Wow, those are some very sobering numbers! I really appreciate the tangent and the research, I had no idea it was as bleak as that with the student loans and the jobs. I had heard of the so-called student loan/higher education bubble, but what I see among colleagues and others in the field, there is a lot of Pollyanna-type ‘hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil’. There is an extreme level of denial and scapegoating. On another tangent, this got me thinking of the old fables and cartoons we used to have–Roadrunner, Bugs Bunny, the Scorpion and the Frog, The Turtle and the Hare–all these stories are to some degree about the predator/prey dynamic–yet folks still are in shock to hear the fox is guarding the hen house. It’s like the famed quote of Mark Twain: “It’s easier to fool people than to convince them they’ve been fooled.”
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I realize this is a tangent from the scope of your original post but I’d like to expand a little more about money in education. I’ll have to look more into your theory that money is used as a carrot as you say for, “CEOs and Presidents and select few into doing the bidding of the globalist think tanks, like Tavistock, Rand, Brookings, Rockefeller, CFR, Bilderberg, etc.”
I’m a bit more of a “meat & potatoes” kind of person so here are some of my thoughts about the infusion of money in higher education;
Money in the form huge student loans has been injected into our economy as just another stimulus plan to prop up our weak economy. Furthermore, if people are sitting in the classroom it delays their entry into the workforce and hides the weakness in the labor market.
Here are numbers to support my thoughts. Currently there is approximately $1.26 Trillion (yep that’s a “T”, not a typo) of student loan debt. The vast majority of that debt has been taken on since 2008, the “last recession”. In fact, there has been an ~850% increase in debt since 2008. That’s a heck a lot of money for beer, iPhones, and tuition pumped into our consumer based economy. All that cheap unearned money also does not make for a savvy “shopper” when considering the cost of school. In fact, college tuition and fees have increased 1272% since 1978.
As to the job market, it sucks to be young!!!!! I know certain politicians while riding their unicorn of hope will tell you different, but…… Let’s look at the latest Jobs report (June ’16). While looking great on the surface that a net of 287,000 jobs where created, if we dig a little deeper we see that ~90% of those new jobs went to people over 55 years old. In fact, if you’re under 25 about 107,000 jobs actually went away!!!
That’s not just a one off. Since 2007 if you are under 55 there are still less jobs out there for you. If fact, there are ~3.4 million less jobs for those under 55 since 2007. But for of those of you long in the tooth there has been a total of ~8 million jobs added since 2007.
That’s why it’s so important keep the education bubble inflated (DNC’s platform for “free” collage) and keep the younger demographics out of the work force.
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Welcome to the world of higher education for profit. Where youthful minds are just another consumer to be monetized and entered on a corporate profit statement.
This feel good – don’t correct (spank) me in my safe zone method of education has totally diminished the value of a degree. Back in the good old days having bachelor’s degree really meant something. Now it’s the equivalent when your 8 year old comes home with a participation (everyone is a winner) ribbon from summer camp.
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Sad but true, texas23. Sadder still is the money is just used as a carrot to keep the CEOs and Presidents and select few into doing the bidding of the globalist think tanks, like Tavistock, Rand, Brookings, Rockefeller, CFR, Bilderberg, etc. In their inner circles these are all the same players and their game is to create a collectivist one world socialist dictatorship through what we could call Traumatology: the science of mass manipulation through crisis creation. More on that in a future post. Thanks for your comment!
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