FRONTLINE: college, inc.: join the discussion | PBS Tuesday, May 04, 2010 8:02 PM

Is this American Pragmatism at it finest or what? The banality of for-profit education is interesting, yet, we must pause because there is something important here about what education is presupposed to entail. Academia (which got it name from the guys house that some of the Greeks used to study at) in it most elitist definition is about exploring ideas in a formal setting and getting a degree. In its most practical education is vocational training the next generation workforce. I am a philosopher, just finishing my Masters degree with a mountain of debt, no job in sight, and I could not happier (but I am clearly mad). Education for-profit only seems to work for the profiteers and not the teachers or students. Can I teach a class for-profit, yes, but for those that have taught there is only profit for the students since the amount of preparation far exceeds the what we are paid (by a sizable amount). Education can be a nebulous idea, just as mental health can be (also non-profit), but when you put a business model in the place of nonprofit education - student/client centered models, it diminishes the practice of learning and commodifies students. The idea of education as a good-in-itself makes little sense in America, but education merely as a way to a job is an equally untenable extreme. The promise of education for the individual is to be a better thinker and hopefully human being, which translates to a society that can manage itself intelligently and morally. To view education through the transactional model, crudely reduces students and educators to units, as well as, the pursuit of knowledge even if it restaurant and hotel management. It is a matter of how we conceive of the value and practice of education. Perhaps, for-profit education will cause universities and colleges to rethink their so-called non-profit model (since they are very much following business models - look at college football) and to invest in the practices of quality education for students.