| Abstract: |
This paper uses sarcastic irony, a la Jonathan Swift in "A Modest Proposal," to create a satirical inquiry into the future demise of community colleges. Beginning with a discouraged, present-day community college professor who is visited by a holographic professor from the future, the paper depicts an educational system completely dominated by technology. This progression towards a computer-run system replacing traditional methods of instruction is described in detail: due to the lack of state funding, the full-time faculty and administrators are replaced by adjunct faculty and program directors; the adjunct faculty, left unregulated, are not necessarily required to possess adequate teaching skills and participate in grade inflation to keep student evaluations high and be rehired; to cut costs, all college ancillary operations are privatized; eventually, schools abandon all pretenses of teaching critical thinking and accept distance learning as a replacement for all functions of the traditional school; and future education is provided by the Internet, with everybody technically able to acquire an education, albeit superficial and incomplete. The paper concludes that technology is not the answer to the intellectual starvation of America's children. (YKH) |