What school should be teaching

by Joseph Segal

I remember in college I took a course in neuropsychology and we were heading into finals. It was a very difficult course for me with a great amount of information to memorize for the final test. After one lecture I stayed to ask the professor a question.

I said professor, you’re asking me to memorize an enormous amount of information for this test. I have to be honest with you. One week or maybe less after I take this final exam I am certain I won’t retain ninety percent or more of this and will forget almost all of it by Summer. So what is it that you hope to achieve here with this process? What is it you want me to get from this?

He took a step back, and I could see him giving the question some thought, and he said Mr. Segal I hope that you learn to look things up. He seemed pretty satisfied with his answer. But as I thought about what he said I quickly realized he spent absolutely no time teaching us how to look anything up all semester.

College seemed to be a process of getting students to jump through various hoops like memorizing facts, showing up on time, writing papers, and test-taking in order to get what amounts to a punchcard that lets the graduate into a new social-economic club that says one has joined the Ivy League club or some state college club.