Past, Present, and Future of Universities

Past, Present, and Future of State University The article Past, Present and Future of State University by Paulo Freire, Paulo Freire was born in 1921 in Recife, Brazil. He studied philosophy, more specifically phenomenology, and the psychology of language. In 1961, he was appointed director of the Department of Cultural Extension of Recife University and in 1962 he had the first opportunity for significant application of his theories. Paulo Freire suggests that our current system is not effective at all. In fact, Freire suggests that our current educational system is not just useless, "Worse yet, it turns them the students into "containers," into "receptacles" to be "filled" by the teachers", but also molds people to fit neatly into society. As a receptacle or a container that is just filled by teachers
The Article said education can be viewed as the consumption and investment. A product or services is considered to belong to the that gives satisfaction or value in a single period and considered to be pure investment goods or services when it is expected to give satisfaction in the future periods. Also, is regarded as the most important aspect of a person’s economic and social success. In economy, terms of education is an economic good because anything that satisfies a human wants is considered a good. Consumption can be determined as simply paying the cost for a good or services and receiving all of the benefits for that good or services immediately.
Also, as consumption is modifies education as a fundamental human right one of the right of every citizen in each country. It defined as consumption goods because a lot of the students could be said to be enjoyed the lectures and the homework given including the reading. This can be seen where many countries set their basic education standard that is primary and secondary school were used as required education. Education is also seen as public goods. It considered as consumption as it motivated by a desires to satisfy the need for personal development, social needs, and also for the needs of knowledge for understanding. Higher education can be viewed both as a consumption good for which the individual is willing to pay and investment as long as it yields higher wages later in life.
The author Paulo Freire is a well known philosophy that is credible for his works. Freire was appointed director of the department of education and culture of the social Service. Also, he was appointed director of the Department of Cultural Extension of Recife University. He published his first book, Education as the Practice of Freedom, which made him a renounced writer.
Freire gave information and examples with clarification that review and threw more light to his article. He gave different details on different Universities on what they faced and will come to existence. Also, with different instance and the way forward from their mistakes, that will move universities forward for expansion. Structure and workings of the university are ever changing. The University of the Past is not like the University of the Present and the University of the Present will not be like the University of the Future. This “adaptation” to the times is what can make some universities great or make some universities among the worst in the nation. In the past the university was very set in their ways. They did things the way they wanted them done. They paid no heed to the rest of the society and the way the ones paying the bills wanted them done. In the past the professors would lecture continually to the students. This nonstop lecturing often left the students bored and with no idea what was really said to them in the lecture. This is no way to try and teach students, students need interaction with the professors that are paid to teach them. As he believed there needs to be communication between the students and the professors and the class should not be totally memorization. Freire also believes that when the professors are active and the students are passive there is no learning there is only memorization. This is the way that things were done in the past. All classes were based on memorizing the material with no interaction. When all you do is memorize you do not put the material to use you just remember it for a short time and then you forget it forever. Freire says that when the teachers are rated on how well the student memorizes the material, they are just passing the students on ignorance. The university should also teach the process of critical thinking not just how to learn facts. The present universities have either changed or are changing the way that they run their university. The universities now are taking on many of the beliefs of the major educational philosophers in order to make changes in the teaching methods. Universities are breaking down many of the divides between majors that they offer. By breaking these barriers the universities are becoming less specialized and more diverse. This goes along with the ideas of Berry. Berry believes that the schools are over-specialized and need to become less specialized. He also thinks that the universities are now just machines that are solely meant to stir up out workers. Everyone today is trying to improve the standards of the public schools because this nation is falling behind the other nations of the world in the overall intelligence of each countries student. Berry believes that the universities are a major part of the problem. In the past the colleges have been lowering the standards of admission, which in turn lowers the standards of all the schools below the college level. The universities are now on the right track by increasing the standards for admission into their college. Many states now have state supported scholarships to help the students that qualify pay for their college education. Many schools are also trying to make class sizes smaller to allow more interaction between the student and the professor; this is one of the main beliefs in the Freire article. Also, in accordance with the beliefs of Freire, the university needs to teach all of the classes like they teach the classes in the honors program. Here at Clemson, even with the increased acceptance, some of the class sizes are getting smaller and even in some of the larger classes the professors go out of their way to interact with the students. The author believes that the future of the university will be much different than the past and the present. The future will be even more electronic than today’s university. Students may not even have to go to class except to take the exams. The students could stay in their dorm rooms and watch the lectures on their computer with the use of digital video discs or some other new medium. The text books would be either is on discs given to all students or located on a central database accessible to all students. The university would still have to have professors on hand to answer questions and to tutor.