Look at the massive industry that has built itself around academia as well - all in the hope of gamifying a student's education. They learn to get the highest grade, not by mastering the subject, but by hacking information input. Nuance, comprehension, and critical thinking have no place in this game. And students are pressured to win no matter what.

@believeroflight9888

7 күн бұрын

you think academia is the only one ? Look at tech industry or any other industry , what are the major inventions in last two decades ? Nothing , all they are doing is just trying to make things have shorter lifespans to increase sales. My smart phones have no additional services which were not available a decade ago . The consumers are getting screwed at all fronts by the owners. The society is returning to its original form , lords and the peasants.

@jeppeaim3039

4 күн бұрын

I'm a bit confused, can you help me understand what you mean by "hacking information input"?

@HeatherFlyte

4 күн бұрын

@@jeppeaim3039 I think about it along the lines of trying to get as much information about a subject into your head before a test instead of full understanding. (The essential problem is how we test subject understanding) but treating learning like a regurgitation of material. It's a system students are subject to, and with the pressure to succeed, will (and maybe should) game in order to get the grade. It's Spark Notes versus reading a text.

@GEMSofGOD_com

2 күн бұрын

You miss the #1 actual issue. Academia is a d3adborn of CORRUPT belly of a few corporations that just goes Satanic in the walls of Academia cause hey academia is good. It isn't!

I’m 81yrs old and don’t have a degree, but you convinced me to pick up a book on stoic philosophy. I’m an avid reader and have been since I was 8 yrs old. Thank you sir💕

@alihijazi4451

9 күн бұрын

That's incredible!! Keep it up! 💪

@JeantheSecond-ip7qm

5 күн бұрын

We are never too old to learn. I’m currently reading about the history of the Christian god. Not as a religious thing, but from an archeological perspective.

@GEMSofGOD_com

2 күн бұрын

Now imagine that you have a treasure of new knowledge emerging from your reading that deserves research publicatioms. Where do you go? The world of research requires whole other framework for novel developments, NOT JOURNALS/ACADEMIA

@clamarroan

Күн бұрын

​@@JeantheSecond-ip7qm Interesting! What sources are you reading?

@JeantheSecond-ip7qm

Күн бұрын

@@clamarroan God an Anatomy by Francesca Stavrakopoulou.

I totally resonate with what you said. I was an assistant professor at a world top 100 university in the Netherlands - and I got disillusioned and quit my job. I'm now a researcher in Germany. It's a more solitary job and there's no teaching but I feel it's a better and purer use of my time.

@RyanCrossOfficial

7 күн бұрын

If you were teaching, what would you share? Your students are waiting for your instruction over KZread

@clamarroan

Күн бұрын

What disillusioned you?

Three things struck me as a philosophy undergraduate. First, there was a lack of contact hours. My course only had eight contact hours in total. Four hours were devoted to lectures, and four hours were devoted to seminars. Discussion is an essential part of philosophy, and yet, for each module, we were discussing an important philosophical text for only fifty minutes in a seminar. This was very disappointing. Second, philosophy programmes are not selective enough. Many students on the course did not want to complete the required readings, and many would surf the internet during seminars. Third, in the last and most important year of my studies, graduate students, fresh from completing their Ph.D.s, were leading some of my modules. While I have been taught by some very good graduate students in the past, many lack teaching experience and familiarity with the subject matter. Given the importance of the final year of one’s studies, I was shocked by this.

I’m college educated, but never got into reading as much as I have in the past year. You inspired me to read Ursula Le Guin, and through you I found Harold Bloom and have been so enriched by the western canon. You’re doing good work and it’s reaching people probably on a more personal level through video format! I really appreciate the thoughtfulness of your content!

I didn't do the readings, or engage with any of my classes when I was at uni paying exorbitantly for it. As soon as I dropped out, I spent hours studying on my own, because it was suddenly easier again. Those 300+ student classes are utterly destructive. If you find something fascinating, there's no-one to talk to about it and ask questions. If you find something difficult, there are thirty students mobbing the lecturer immediately after class. It's easier to just disengage

I did my bachelor in chemistry in Colombia in the 00's. A decade later, I decided to shift gears, I was living in the US and enrolled in a local college. I was baffled, the young students around me were really lazy and getting the same grades I had (doing all the work), they went to the teachers offices crying for better grades, and they got them. I left. I wasn't learning anything I couldn't learn by myself, given the really low standards in those classes.

@dustyoldhat

6 күн бұрын

I got my bachelors in the early 2000s, and later went back to school for a graduate degree. I was teaching as a grad in 2016-2018 and again as a lecturer in 2020-2021. Standards have fallen so low, there's no rigor, students are handled with kid gloves and emerge with an outsized sense of worth without the knowledge and skills to back it up, because they've been coddled for four years. Professors have become terrified to grade harshly or hold them to a high standard, because of sites like Rate My Professor, or being accused of this, that, or the other thing and called before administration. So most professors just let students slide in order to avoid conflict and confrontation because they are only interested in focusing on their research, and their undergrad classes are potential minefields of politics, gender, cancellation, etc. Undergrad programs are broken. It's just about money.

@Summalogicae

3 күн бұрын

@@dustyoldhat This is absolutely the case, unfortunately

@clamarroan

Күн бұрын

So, in your experience, is higher Ed better in Colombia than in the States?

@sccrespoc

Күн бұрын

@@clamarroan I'm no sure. I have no experience with Colombian education right now. I know it has changed to comply con international standards (that are about administration, not much about curriculum). I can say that the education I got in Colombia back in 2004 was way better than in the US in 2019, if only because I got real feedback and challenges, while in the US I didn't get feedback, the teachers were very reluctant to critique any student's work, they also didn't want to ask student to make the effort. They just nodded and said good job if the student gave the bare minimum (no incentive to do a good job if you're getting the same than lazy ppl).

One other thing I noticed is that the classic works in my field were essentially absent from my education. In a history program we never discussed Herodotus, Thucydides, Tacitus, Hobbes, and Gibbon, and barely touched Plutarch and Polybius. I don't think we read any historians with a real impact on the field and it was almost all articles that had been written in the last 30 years. Now I feel like I'm playing catch up even though I already have my degree.

@Jepicosity

9 күн бұрын

I'm a senior undergrad in an English program, and I've experienced the same thing. My professors are always referencing these classics, expecting students to be familiar with them, but they're never covered or actually discussed in classes. It's like the professors learned it all and forgot that it needed to be taught, creating a massive literary gap. Don't even get me started on grammar or technical language either. I wouldn't be surprised if most literature professors wouldn't be able to speak accurately or articulately about any of it.

@linusverclyte4988

7 күн бұрын

The main advantage of an academic education in history, philosophy, literature etcetera is that by the end of it you should have acquired broad, summarized, reliable knowledge about the subject (along with some specialized expertise) and have learned how that knowledge was acquired and how to do research yourself and think critically. Historiography or the history of how history was written is not usually the main focus of a program in history let alone a detailed study of works of the major historians of the past. I don't see how that would be possible in the limited time available. Do you think you would know more about history if you had classes devoted to that instead of other subjects? Gibbon's 'The decline and fall of the Roman Empire' consists of 6 volumes and thousands of pages: how long would it take to read and discuss even a portion of that in class? Not to mention it was written in the 18th century and its main thesis (Christianity as the main cause for the decline and fall of Rome) is pretty much universally rejected today. In my view you're not catching up: your intellectual journey has just begun. With the major advantage of having a sound base of knowledge with which to evaluate and appreciate the works you mentioned. Which is something most people lack. Of course academic programs aim to produce academics which may not be ideal or even what most people who enter them expected and wanted but I do think they have value none-the-less. Self-study without any formal education to start from is not all it's cracked up to be. Professors are worth listening to.

@leannichleirigh2607

6 күн бұрын

I did history and taught it as a grad student. The texts you mention (apart from Gibbon) are all part of either the Classics programme or Ancient History. They’re not looked at in History programmes in Europe at all.

Thank you for your channel, I would’ve never gotten back into reading and writing if it weren’t for you!

@_jared

9 күн бұрын

I really appreciate you saying that! And I'm glad I could be of use.

I have a lot of personal interests that I want to pursue. And I believed that being in academia would provide an avenue for pursuing those interests. But in reality, I have found that being in academia has forced me into a position of providing a service that students don't want (I work in teaching mathematics) and that detracts from my freedom to pursue my personal academic curiosities (applying my philosophical perspective in mathematics and category theory to broader fields beyond undergraduate mathematics) because I MUST teach undergraduate math courses that are accessible to a broad collection of students, so that they can succeed in an environment where mathematics is not their primary interest. The pressure to simplify and water down the material is a pressure from administrators that want to provide degrees as a product students can purchase rather than a measure of how developed and well rounded students have become. It's frustrating and has made me seriously reconsider my purpose and place in modern academia.

Hey Jared. Thanks for your posts. I have been following a lot of your Codex posts, to learn more about literature. I'm 60, retired now for the last 5 years or so and in my retirement have focused my energies on writing and reading and learning about literature. I'm deep into that whole experience and loving it. I have gone to your posts, and a few other podcasting 'Literatos' on the web to get some background on writers I like, and literature movements and the history of literature and language. I had originally hoped to audit some classes in the universities in my town, but found them wanting, or not inviting, unless you've paid up and so I've gone to people like yourself for that learning. Just wanted you to know, you still have students and that this choice to share your knowledge and experience here, has been great for those of us out here, who want it. Hope you're able to continue. Thanks again.

I agree that a lot of students are not being set up for success. A lot of my colleagues believe that our students are lazy and stupid. All of my students work full time outside of school. Many of them speak multiple languages. They're neither lazy nor stupid. They're overwhelmed. Your comments about not being encouraged or challenged to read remind me of a first-year student I taught who told me wanted to be a lawyer and prior to my class he had never once read a book from cover to cover. He didn't have the skills to really analyze what was happening in the books we read because he was learning how to do that in a university course rather than earlier in his life. He really did try! I think he has a lot of potential to improve! But he's starting so far behind because he wasn't challenged earlier.

@JamesAdams-ev6fc

9 күн бұрын

I think that we faculty forget our own challenges when we were students. After you learn the basics of the field OF COURSE it is much easier than it is for them. Also, in these days, many more families are acquiring a college education than in the 1940s and 1950s, and given the cost nowadays, OF COURSE they are struggling.

this was phenomenal Jared. Your videos have encouraged me to put Boethius on my soon-to-be-read list. (We were assigned him in college but had a hurricane that cancelled school that week, and I don’t think I did the optional reading…excited to finally go back to it.) thank you!

Jared, thank you so much for this video. As someone who is in the process of leaving my doctoral program to pursue my passion as a landscaper, I deeply resonate with your message here. "Leaving academia was the thing that allowed me to pursue what I actually want my vocation to be." This is a quote of yours I'm going to carry with me on my own departure from academia. It's a quote that'll keep me working strong in tripple digit heat for sure. Your departure from academia and your plunge into your current persuits serve as an inspiration to me and I cannot express in words how much this means to me. I'll leave it at "thank you," for now. And I look forward to watching your videos on this channel or on other BookTube channels you're featured on. Take care.

I agree with you 100% Jared. I've always been somewhat interested in philosophy on a very surface level but when I came across your channel a while back, you got me excited to dig a little deeper into it. I'm still a slow reader mind you, but you've really helped me to not just give up on a text because its a little challenging or it is taking a long time to get through. Keep up the great work! 🙂

Great video, man. Thanks for this honest and very satisfyingly candid video. *Thank you*

Academia globally has become a business that doesn't foster the life of the mind. You can be a scholar without being an academic.

Lots of good insights here. I work at a university and am in a grad program there. Thank you for this video.

The quality of content that you put out is incredibly underrated. I was one of those students that struggled with reading, writing, doing math, etc and was told that this was and issue. Because of this everything was brought down a level in my mind until I reached high school. Your channel helped me discover a deep love for writing and reading.This discovery has shown me for the first time what those two subjects have to offer, the challenges that it poses to my mind and the benefit of overcoming those challenges. I appreciate your recent work on youtube and substack that advocates for a system that can better challenge the youth of today and hopefully create a generation great thinkers.

I totally agree with your mission and it inspires me to do something similar, thankyou for sharing! ❤

Thank you for your videos. I had stopped reading for some time and was struggling to find something to pursue on my own time. I started purchasing and reading more since watching your channel. You have definitely help me find the passion of reading more meaningful books again.

This channel really inspires me to further engage in a lot of my interests, thank you for that

Kudos for giving a sober analysis! I’m about to return to academia for a phd after teaching at a high school level for the last 15 years. I share your concerns. However, I do think that the only way to make a change is from within. And so, while I respect your opinion and decision, I think there still is hope. Keep up the good work on this channel!

@dustyoldhat

6 күн бұрын

Oh please make a youtube channel so we can track your slow metamorphosis from optimistic excited early PhD "changing things from within" student to aggravated cynic ogre.

Jared, this is an excellent video and I appreciate the integrity and thought behind your work. It’s bold to follow a path like this, and allowing us to see you pursue this “project” has been so enlightening and inspiring. I was a middle school teacher, and I’ve found that institutions get in the way of and prevent unfettered honesty and connection between student and teacher. I also think that watching a thoughtful intellect on KZread is less stressful and imposing and more accessible for the average “smart book curious” than university. I’m following your career with great interest and many well wishes. ❤

You have definitely pushed me to try new books and to challenge myself with thinking deeply about the material. Thank you!

I was a weird kid in highschool. When I saw how much college cost and the interest rates they charged, my response was "I wish I got that in my savings account!!". Given I was a weirdly financially conscious kid, I never left home. I went to the local community college to get my associates degree, got it transferred to the local 4 year university and completed my bachelors there. The quality of education was pretty disappointing. I see videos online from students at other colleges studying the same degree as me, and they can speak with such depth on topics I haven't even been introduced to. Funnily enough, I still find myself wishing I could've gone to a "real" school. The ones with the fancy libraries, dining halls, dorms, all that. I do sometimes feel like I missed something.

Wow! I never expected to see this much pain/sorrow and (com)passion. I'm Estonian and I have absolutely no personal knowledge of what's going on in universities over there ... but the WAY you talk shows your honesty and even though you stay entirely logical and rational -- I would say, sadness and disappoint. It was a powerful talk. I hope everything will work out for you.

I am in the uk and damn lol, I never really saw uni as an experience for me personally. I am not one to really party, uni to me is soley education and getting my degree and seeing where I come out at the other side. I LITERALLY am basically studying ALL the time

@MiloMay

9 күн бұрын

What are you studying?

@halofan117halofan6

9 күн бұрын

@@MiloMay biotech

Nice to find your channel and the others here who share similar experiences and views. I was a philosophy graduate candidate years ago and had similar dreams of reading/writing/teaching philosophy as a career. Ultimately I decided against pursuing it and have occasionally been haunted by "what if" thoughts. (One of my loves was philosophy of language as well btw!) The more I hear professional academics and former professional academics discuss the problems and often downright toxicity in the academic bubble, the more I'm convinced I saved myself a lot of headache and heartache, not to mention money, by not going that direction. Thanks for your channel!

I always get something out of ALL your videos. I am long out of college and university, now retired, but reading is something I love and you are truly an inspiration in so many ways. Thank you.

Hi. One more person commenting to help your channel. 💪🏻 Your videos definitely helped me, as a middle aged woman, open up to the idea of reading hard books! I’m a former librarian, I love reading and lifelong learning. But somehow I left out the classics and works on Philosophy. 🙏🏻

Thanks Jared. Over the past many months I have been watching and enjoying your videos, you have provided an extra spark in my desire to read philosophy. I have been interested for a few years, but it now is more than just an interest. I believe it is something that can enrich my life in many ways. Last month after I finished reading Meditations for the second time I went straight to Letters From A Stoic. I seem to be reading these works with a different level of awareness. I can't say it is from just watching your videos, but I do believe it has definitely helped. Take care fella.

I really appreciate your work and democratization of worthwhile material.

Jared I really enjoy your insights that provoke thoughts thanks

Jared I have watched your videos on and off for a couple of years. I have taught at all levels of education and as a 53 year old man I have found joy in teaching at what you would label Kindergarten level as it fits in with my family commitments here in the UK. I enjoy being at the ‘chalk face’ but I have also become disillusioned by the decay in education and its constant ‘rebranding’. Style over substance. I have turned to your channel in an effort to scratch an intellectual itch. I am revisiting my brief foray into Philosophy from about 25 years ago. I am really enjoying it and with the summer break heading my way - I’m looking forward to being able to commit some time to it. Thank you for your honest and approachable manner - I’m sure academia has made a mistake in allowing you to move on. But then - I’m doing my most enjoyable work after ‘moving’ on from other things. Maybe this is your true calling?

my experience in US education, both as a student and as a teacher, is that it takes so much agency away from the students, and it makes it easy, and boring and students are smart enough to realize they dont have to try and so they dont. everyone passes, everyone graduates, as long as you show up half the time and sort of do something, it's good enough. i eventually found art, and it was the only type of class where i was allowed to challenge myself, make my own decisions, and succeed or fail based on my own work. no other class i took gave me that agency and engagement, gave me the experience of doing something for myself and seeing the results of my effort. we rob students of ever learning that they can make their own decisions and challenge themselves beyond the outlines of a multiple choice test.

@randk2370

9 күн бұрын

Insightful take. I'm wondering what was your major as a student and what do you teach now? Because as a current Soc and Psych double major, I feel a lot of my major classes give me great autonomy to explore things I'm passionate about if it's within the scope of the class. Although, when I take quantification or natural sciences classes, I do feel there is no space for autonomy or creativity which made me really frustrated (but, at the same time, I don't know if there is another way to teach them than that..).

@skyinsession

9 күн бұрын

@@randk2370 i studied studio art, but had to take a lot of 'required' classes and art history and the contrast was very apparent. maybe it is just the difference between the types of class, but there must be a way for students in all areas to feel like they are genuinely involved in their own education, that there are real stakes and real rewards. but of course, these schools would have to be putting education first and you know that cant happen.

Your channel has been helpful in getting me back to reading books (mostly fiction for now), so thank you for that!

Nice work sir 👏

Man I love this channel!

Thank you. Great chat. And also make no mistake Mr. Jared, you are still teaching.

Great points Jared. Never forget that universities are a business with an educational slant. Tuition is so high simply because the government is backing the student loans, thus admins are increasing the cost knowing that they will get the money. I agree that colleges are heading into trouble, but a lot of them do not even realize it yet.

Thank you for your perspective! Seeing your videos really coincided with my bachelor's burnout on year 3 out of 4. I'm not from America, but our countries' humanitarian faculties (Theatre studies in my case, but also Humanities in general) are understaffed and underfunded, not rescpeted compared to other sciences, and most graduates are not in demand at all. Also now professors and students can be fired or in extreme cases be legally prosecuted for being against government's policy... Add to that a feeling of inadequacy, and imposter syndrome (or maybe I'm just geniunely a bad fit lol) Your videos as well as of other creators really remind me that I can choose a different vocation while continuing to learn more about life in philosophical and other terms on my own, that I do not neccesarily need a degree to "deserve" to have opinions about the world we live and the life that is happening. Thanks!

Very good points. In recent years, the university experience has focused on extras, like gym, cafes, and entertainment/distraction things. Another big issue is the big focus on social justice causes and other political issues. College should be challenging, demanding, even hard...that's why it was so worthwhile in the past.

I agree 100% with everything you said. I have a master‘s degree from a swiss university and felt that the education was severely lacking. I also would have loved to go into academia but the people I knew that did that were all unhappy. It’s so sad because academia would be a dream job if it was actually about academia. I also think that education is so elitist and exclusive to those who can afford it and that’s just wrong. Your channel is open to everyone and I‘m glad it exists.

Hey, I study chemistry in Germany. It is a lot less expensive to study here but there are also problems. In Germany professors are doing a lot of the teaching, but there also overseeing the PhD.s and connecting with the industry and politics. Thus, they are really overworked and often just set up the material for their course and really rarely actualize it. Also they get no training in teaching at all, it’s just assumed they know how to do it. That and the fact that they are “verbeamtet” (if they don’t do something criminal, they are practically impossible to fire) makes the teaching quality a gamble. Most of them are at least ok though. I was in the student council for many years and making the test easier was discussed frequently. In hindsight I am most shocked about the total uninterested way, they treated the growing gap between expectations and reality of student performance. They never even attempted to collect data. I mean fixing problems is sciences hole deal, right? They never even asked themselves if it might be a structural problem. They just assumed that schools are getting worse (which is true) and that students need to self-organize more. What Jared mentioned in this video - that students are getting to little feedback - is also true here.

Another aspect of American academia is that it’s designed for people who can devote all of their time to school, which is an absolute privilege. There’s not as much consideration or support for those who work while attending school. I was certainly not prepared for 500 pages of reading per week when I began my Master’s degree while also working full time.

@Garglicious

9 күн бұрын

Sorry to ask but my friend just finished her residency & is planning on doing her job now and getting a partime Phd from Ohio university.. isn't partime Phd available in the US in general or is restrictive?

@shesheartfocused

9 күн бұрын

@@Garglicious I’m not able to speak about that experience as I am only working on a Masters and not a Ph.D. But I hope your friend has a wonderful time in their studies!

This encouraged me as a stay at home homeschooling mom to continue reading long books and classics with my kids instead of just small excerpts. I want them to feel that they are capable from a young age to finish books and not feel so intimidated. It wasn’t until I stopped going to college and learning on my own that actually have felt the accomplishment of finishing a long book and really analyzing and enjoying the process.

My average class size was around 14 students, and there were no teaching assistants, just professors (Hillsdale)

@Hilaire_Balrog

9 күн бұрын

good school proving the old ways work

@BennettAustin7

9 күн бұрын

Great school

@sweetaznspice1

7 күн бұрын

I envy you (in a good way), although my liberal arts program at UW (University of Washington) in the mid to late 90s wasn't too bad considering the lack of standards today.

@sweetaznspice1

3 күн бұрын

Wow, what are the odds! Yes, UW is a great school and I had a great time being a student there, although I would have preferred smaller classes in an intimate setting. I imagine Hillsdale still provides one of the best liberal arts programs in the nation.

Sir, that is a cool decision! There are significant problems in the selection processes for both learners and universities, as well as in academic management. Considering advancements in technology and the economic and political situations in different countries, there is a tremendous need for change in these processes. Throughout history, philosophers often lived modestly and were not wealthy, which contrasts sharply with today’s focus on economic survival and paying bills. Thanks.

I agree with you so much! ❤

Thank you so much for talking about this. Our world has plenty of vices to depress over, but somehow this is one of the top contenders for me. I deeply wish I could go back to my childhood when I passionately studied for endless hours. Now university isn't about education but maxing out the stats in this popularity contest the world has become. Just became a lawyer now, a bit of course work yet to complete but I despise the system. I'm grateful for not being in debt, but can't bear what's happening with my friends who do. I'm rekindling my love for reading from your recommendations. Thank you for everything ❤️

Love what you said, and hate how correct you are. Expectations, and universities/colleges as we knew them, are for the most part dead and gone. People are coming to you on KZread because they've been starved for real, difficult, and meaningful education. Keep up the great work!

as a student you've raised some very interesting and valid perspectives that i hadnt considered before, thank you!

Great video. As someone who graduated a year ago, I have seen and felt the low quality education being given in college. I went to Grand Canyon University. And although I cannot speak for everyone there, the expectation of a tough, rigorous education to sharpen your mind for life is not there. People go there, like you said, for the experience, not the training to better their lives in work, family life and making the world a lovelier place. It is sad, but it is the world we live in. Keep up the videos. You are making a difference.

Hey Jares I am one of your past followers during college, I am academia now , and start a KZread channel, and I trust your explanations, and may you be one of models I need to be on KZread one day. and I wish you best in upcoming work

A year ago, you published 7 Books for Beginners, or something like that. Your video gave me that last nudge to read philosophy. I followed your recommendations and started with Plato's Works, then moved to Philosophical Investigations by Wittgenstein. I also have Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics on my shelf, but I haven't read that one yet. Still, it was all thanks to you.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts Man these are some really brutal facts I thought the European school system lacks a lot of good education preparation but wow I didn’t expect it was similar over there

Great video! And kitty approved-definite winner! 💜🐈‍⬛

I've sometimes felt intimidated by the harder works of philosophy (I haven't read nearly as much as I would've wanted) but you have definitely inspired me to read more philosophy and you've given us a general understanding of how to approach it, which can be quite daunting even for someone interested in it, let alone any "normal" person. So yes I'd definitely say you've helped me get out of my comfort zone. And in other genres too, I started Book of the New Sun and GGK's books in part because you've recommended them, and I'm very glad. So thank you.

Here are a couple of things (paraphrased) I was told during a one minute conversation by one of the professors I worked with at one of the universities: • "The students are our paying customers. They are paying for a fun college experience, so make sure they have a good time. We've got to keep our customers happy!" • "Student evaluations are the most important thing because they make or break careers, and usually they break them... because it shows the customers weren't happy, and they are very hard to please these days."

As someone who's taking a break from academia (on the STEM side), I would like to note that a lot of the time when those first two years aren't being taught by grad students, they're being taught by non-tenure track faculty who have very little ability to push back on demands without putting their employment in jeopardy. My experience as NTT at a flagship university was one of high teaching loads, low support, and a desire to streamline everything. Ironically, I felt far greater leeway to challenge students at a two-year school, and the class loads were small enough that I could give students the attention needed. In addition, the students tended to come in not feeling like they'd "made it" by getting into the institution, so there was often more of a drive to challenge oneself. There were often issues with non-education things interfering that took more work, but students with complicated lives deserve good educations too. While I'm not in the humanities, I do agree with you that the move towards testing has led to a disturbing prioritization of shorter passages. I was especially concerned with that for my youngest kid, who spent his last year and a half of high school taking English online -- the state insisted on use of a system that changed what the students did quite dramatically, eliminating major book-related projects. In particular, the English department had one project called "major author " where students read five books by an author chosen from a list, analyzed the books and produced a work that discussed major themes and connections over those five books. The state did away with it during the pandemic. I understand - it's not something you can do easily with standardized testing - but I still grieve the loss.

Thank you Jared

Some rhetorical questions: (1) are universities more focused on the pursuit of funding for research, or, is undergraduate education the top priority? (2) do parents expect a university to take their place when the student goes to a university? (3) is success at funding a higher priority in the tenure decision vs. teaching and training excellence of university students? (4) how many parents conduct ad hoc audits of the classes that their students take at a university as a matter of quality checks? (5) is poor teaching equivalent to stealing?

We appreciate your insights. I agree, not all universities are actually as good as they seem to be.

Where i work in Britain i mix amongst a lot of active students and i notice the same thing. I must stress i never went into academia didnt have A levels but i have read a lot of various topics including the classics when i discuss any of this hardly any know what im talking about. I seems education is like the highway code you just need to learn what is necessary to pass thats it you left on your own in the wide world theres no encouragement to carry on learning about anything they just end up doing menial jobs like where i work. But i have notice more youngsters now dont want to go on to further education because of debt but just go out to work. I use to dream about goint to universities prove myself to people but not now i don't regret it i just carry on learning my own way from books and KZread videos like you thanks

I like to refer back to the rhetoric of Mark Twain about not letting schooling interfere with one's education. But seriously, I often recommend that people seek out training in hard skills such as nursing, mechanical work, IT, etc. (as opposed to soft skills like management, administration, HR, et al.) Hard skillsets are almost always in shortage and their certification route relatively accessible. And most of all: instead of trying to find a job that makes you happy, find something you're good at and find joy in it. Also, don't accept the notion that a junior college is necessarily inferior to the big universities. Junior colleges not only have much more reasonable pricing, class sizes, and scheduling, but the professors are most often retired industry professionals with a career of genuine experience and lots of earned wisdom. University professors (particularly those outside of the hard sciences) have little to no experience outside of the classroom, for better or worse.

I was trained in high school to read complex philosophical books in a very short amount of time. I was young and did not get everything I was reading. Anyway, it made a difference for me at the university: instead of "philosophical antologies," with short excerpts from various philosophers, I was able to read actual philosophical books. I live in Europe, and in order to do this, I had to follow a study course in English (I am a mother language, Italian and English). But without my double language skills, without the proper education that one single teacher gave me in high school, what would have been of my university education? As a researcher, I still see students struggling to read a whole book and prefer to read various reductions. This is highly discouraging. You can not do research in humanities without having the ability to face complex texts without an appreciation of minor works and a well structured knowledge. I am still in academia, but I understand your position. Things have to change: we have the responsibility of making our future generation independent and professionally competent. Thank you for sharing.

As an engineering student the expectations part for like the complete reverse. Most the professors are really more interested in their research than teaching, same problem you mentioned about grad students and we're just kind of expected to learn most everything and adapt to new software almost entirely on our own. Like I feel I'm more paying for a structured timeline to do my own learning and a degree that proves I did that. Many of my class mates who end up doing just fine skip most lectures because they're largely useless

Thank you for sharing your real life insights. KZread in 10 years is going to take everything by storm. Such as entertainment, informative Podcasts and education of any kind. Perhaps KZread already did that, although it is limitless as long as we have content creators. Much more transparent than the traditional media, education and entertainment.

Me watching this while preparing to go into academia 👁👄👁

@kai1799

9 күн бұрын

Me watching this, in academia T^T

@user-sv4hp6vf3w

9 күн бұрын

@@kai1799 oof

@dayshawna

9 күн бұрын

me watching this, struggling in academia and taking another break from it.

@Garglicious

9 күн бұрын

Atleast you'll know the cons already and be well prepared :)

@chairconseg2061

9 күн бұрын

X2

Having read philosophy books since I left college in 1989, everything you say here is spot on. At first, they seem daunting, but you get used to it and find yourself in a world of wonder. The fact that you prefer to do your own thing here on KZread rather than be part of a predatory money-making system that doesn't deliver on its promises is something I admire.

I consider you are helping create a new host of autodidacts. You provide the possibility of education without the skew of contemporary academia.

You hit the nail right on the head about universities wanting to provide an “experience” over an education. I’m a graduate admissions recruiter at a major Tier 1 university in Texas and this is definitely the case. Administrators (at least at my school) really look down on academics, especially those who argue for greater academic rigor. On another note, what’s your take on encouraging others to pursue advanced degrees in the humanities? While working at my university, I got my master’s in English and wrote a thesis with the intention of doing a PhD (fall 2025), but I hear lots of arguments-from people who have PhDs-not to do a PhD, when the very people telling me not to pursue the degree seem to have benefited immensely from their doctorate.

I'm a full time prof at a JC and a writer. Just wanted to drop in and say thank you for sharing your thoughts on the regular. It's a joy to listen to someone so passionate about the betterment of people's lives through the work of the mind.

i'm going into my 4th year at a fancy canadian school (equivalent to an ivy league school) and everything you shared is very true here. i walked into university thinking after my education degree, i'd love being a prof. after learning about the stuff you shared, i think i'd rather do adult basic education or work in indigenous-controlled colleges.

Terrific video, Jared. I received my undergraduate degree at UW-Madison and for the time, the financial cost (and the quality of the classes) was certainly worth the investment, especially since I mostly had actual tenured professors. Now, I'm guessing the same classes cost 6-8 times with probably less actual professor involvement.

My experience of academia is in STEM, and I would say many of your observations translate over. One additional thought: I've seen established professors push back on the request to make courses easier, but they typically teach upper-level undergraduate and graduate courses. And so what you get is a disconnect between who has the institutional support to push back, and who teaches intro level courses.

For job-finding, I recommend 'What Color is your Parachute' (Richard Bolles). Thanks for the thoughts. It's difficult for me to relate to philosophy. I took some classes and the first lecture was about the difference between mind and brain. That didn't float my boat and I was able fortunately to switch to Spanish language and literature which was very enjoyable and useful in my future life. I'm sorry that US students are being sold short - the future belongs to those countries who provide opportunities to their young people to challenge themselves. I like languages/linguistics and music (including music theory). Recently I managed to read 'The Devils' by Dostoevsky, but it took application and concentration. If students are being asked to write criticism of a book while at the same time not being considered capable of reading it, then that's really sad - especially if it costs them a ton of money.

I am getting into academia as an adjunct at 65 years old. I love it. Not here for the money, but for the mission. You make really good points and I have seen it for myself in the classroom. But it doesn’t mean I can’t set the bar high for student outcomes. You’re going to succeed no matter what you choose to do because you have a great sense of purpose and you’re incredibly intelligent. I can see you leading an Online University, although getting accreditation is likely an impossibility. Unless? What if? Keep doing what you are doing. New sub.

As a fellow ex- academic, I totally agree with what you are describing. I am based in the UK, but the problems are, in my opinion, just the same. I am still processing my decision of leaving academia (it wasn't my choice entirely, burnout decided for me XD), but I think I do not regret either. I wish you all the best for your future plans, love your videos!!

When I was younger I had this romantic view of the academy and what I thought were "professional" or academic philosophers like. I had read Crime and Punishment by Dostoevsky and that book left an impression on me, I felt a personal connection with Raskolnikov. Not with his deed, of course, but with his thoughts on greatness and predestination. I got this naive idea that "for sure, everyone that is interested in philosophy is like us". And I was certain that for you to attain a philosophy degree you have to have read from the source material all the classics from antiquity to modernity. "How could you be truly knowledgeable on philosophy knowing any less?"- I thought, naively. I never however put seriously thought on enrolling in a philosophy undergraduate course. I just wanted something that had a more practical application. I wanted to build actual things. Maybe my engineering side was stronger, after all, both of my parents are engineers. When I finally did enroll in an undergrad course, I enrolled in architecture. I remember in one of my first assignments I sketched an eagle, for what would be monument, and explained to the professor, that the meaning of it was symbolic, that it had to do with Nietzsche and Thus Spoke Zarathustra (my favorite book ever). She was surprised and asked If I had studied philosophy. I said "No... I just like reading philosophy out of my own interest". Soon I came to understand that even in academia most people are just not very bright, even academics are disappointingly dull. For the longest time I was sure that had to be because I live in Brazil (I'm Brazilian) and surely, the US universities must have a much higher standard. Thanks for confirming to me that is not the case, that your institutions and academics are just as underwhelming as ours. If you are curious about the end of my academic story: I got my Architecture undergrad degree, then I learned programming by myself and that is what I do now. Thanks for the video.

@adrianatgaming8640

7 күн бұрын

Hey, I appreciate your comment. I've read Dostoevsky over the past 2 years too and have found him deeply profound on the roots of modernity's problems. You're convincing me to start reading Nietzsche too (Beyond Good and Evil has been on my bookshelf for a while now -- my friend gifted it to me!). However, as I am going into first year undergraduate studies, your observations are quite worrying to me. I certainly hope university classes will be an enriching experience and I will certainly read novels, philosophical treatises and other books to make the best of my spare time. It would be great if you could offer any advice on making my undergraduate years fruitful. Nevertheless I see a silver lining. Although as you say, "even academics are disappointingly dull," what I see in many spaces on the Internet are intelligent people, knowledgeable and inquisitive in the realms of philosophy and other fields. Certainly if people like the viewers of this channel come together, there can be a revival of academic inquiry outside of the university. It might even be better -- it ends the monopoly on knowledge universities currently hold, effectively democratizing knowledge even to a degree beyond what the Internet has accomplished.

@Vicente_Lopes_Senger

7 күн бұрын

@@adrianatgaming8640 Thanks for your kind words. I share your views and enthusiasm on this promising broad online community we are building. I have thought about this many times and you have articulated it very well in your own words. Beyond Good and Evil is very good, however, I myself I'm more drawn to Thus Spoke Zarathustra, maybe because I have an artistic side of me that really enjoys the prose of the book. Or maybe for other reasons that would be too much to discuss here... I'm not sure I have much to offer in terms of academic advice as I did struggle to navigate the academic world myself. One thing I can say is, if perhaps, I had choose to enroll on a philosophy undergrad program I would have found more kinship with my peers and professors. But that is something I can only speculate about and could be completely wrong. You tell me you are reading Dostoevsky and philosophy and finding it enjoyable, so one thing I can say to you is this: you are an intellectual. And in my experience we are a rare kind. Know that you probably won't find many along the way you can really connect to in a deep intellectual level, so value those you do find, both peers and professors. Those are invaluable friendships, potentially for life. Do not fear, know that it will be sometimes a bumpy journey. Trust in yourself, do not let mean-spirited professors destroy your love for your gift. And if by chance you find yourself identifying a lot with myself, remember this: "Ne te quæsiveris extra" As Emerson puts better than I could in Self-Reliance: "Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string. Accept the place the divine providence has found for you, the society of your contemporaries, the connection of events. Great men have always done so, and confided themselves childlike to the genius of their age..." Good luck!

My last appointment was at a very good technological university. In that setting extensive reading is impossible because of the weekly intake of mathematics, theory, and experimental, hands-on subject matter. This crowds out humanities and social sciences. What happens is that those subjects become the freedom of a post-engineering career. The students in some cases at least, return to these areas as part of their lifelong learning.

Preach it!!!!!!!

Jared...Amen! Amen! Amen!

I had a student tell me that it was unreasonable that I expected them to do any form of reading towards their degree. I also totally get you on the teaching thing. I'm a PhD student and teach the odd module here and there. I get virtually no support from the uni. I only get paid for teaching hours. I feel like I am limited in what I can give to the students as I don't really have office hours to give, I may or may not reappear later in their degree and I definitely don't have the time to develop modules beyond small embellishments on the material I inherit. I totally feel like students aren't getting what they pay for and that we don't have the career opportunities we should have. How will they staff universities in the future?? (In the UK btw)

I am just finishing my PhD in Education and plan to try to become a professor in the next couple of months. There is a contest to become a professor of Art History at the Fine Arts university near where I live. It is a civil service examination because it is a federal university.

I see the icons from the background.😊

Great video. I'm an academic philosopher at post-doc level and I love the job. Being able to keep my own hours, work on what I want to work on (within the remits of the projects I'm on), is something I wouldn't trade for anything. That said, I don't teach and frankly, I don't want to for the reasons you are giving. It's no different in the UK. The formal logic module is one that is especially being dumbed down to the point where, at some universities, students spend about half the module learning logical fallacies, rather than logical systems. It's pandering for "student satisfaction" metrics over here, which is the dominant force for what gets universities at the top of the university rankings as opposed to, oh, I don't know, education or research! :P

I’m almost done with my masters degree and can easily say there has not been consistency amongst the professors within my courses. 10 courses in and some courses were incredibly difficult while others had such a low bar that I felt I was back in high school or undergrad. There were 2 classes in particular that I felt I wasted time and thousands of dollars on. I could have done the work in my sleep and didn’t learn much at all. What a waste!

Not that I was seeking a career in academia, but I was turned off to any possibility of it after taking part time work for a lab on campus. I watched what the doctoral candidates and post-doctoral researchers had to jump through, as well as the politics. So I do understand some of the frustrations mentioned. Now after retiring from an unsatisfying career, I find myself wanting to learn again. I think it's natural that philosophy be the starting point for that, and I guess that's why the KZread algorithms introduced me to this channel. So much of what I know of philosophy actually came from my high school courses. Your channel and suggestions have made it easier for me to rediscover what I have sorely missed.

I left when I was on the verge of a Ph.D. if not for the shenanigans of my committee. I grieved. It was my whole identity, but... Universities are a joke. It's a marketing scam on the student end, and an ideological incubator on the scholars' end.

I completely agree. University was pretty broken even when I went, but the piece of paper I got out of it got me jobs. I didn’t feel I learned *anything* I needed for my chosen profession. I had to learn all of it on the job.

Same. I'm planning out my Substack / social media scope right now. Though my area is communication.

I'm happy that I went to a college that prepares you for university and helps you develop those skills. For example, doing 100 pages of readings. I feel that I did get what I paid for and it helped me realize what I'm interested in. If I had gone to university straight after high school, I wouldn't have done as well because high school work is very different from university work, especially in philosophy. I feel that I developed really good reading and writing skills, especially for essay-like exams. I know academia can be toxic, but it also has its benefits. I can see how it may have failed some students. Even though it costs more money, I do feel that going to college before university would be beneficial.

One of my best friends is an absolutely brilliant historian who would have been a kickass professor, but she stopped after her masters bc she knew it’s basically impossible to get a job doing that anymore. (And boy do we know enough history PhDs to confirm that). She has worked as an administrator at a prestigious university for several years now. I’m not sure I’ll ever get over the injustice that is the same system that refused to pay her to research and teach is perfectly happy to pay her a living wage to sit in meetings and get yelled at by professors who don’t want to have to submit grades.

I heartily agree with you that the administrative staff. I could ramble on and on about various nightmare experiences, but this comment would turn into just one long rant. My experience working within a university system was that these people were not held accountable. It was basically summer camp for adults. When I complained, I was told to accept it and go with the flow.

Dude I don't know what you did but these last few posts you're looking sharp as hell. And yeah, universities are long overdue for a reset. On paper it seems like a good idea for the department of education to give everybody whatever loans they need to go to school, but the way it has played out has just been for colleges to raise tuition over and over without increasing the quality of the education. The way universities are accredited basically functions as a cartel, with officials from prestigious universities sitting on the board that makes the decision whether or not to allow in a new university to qualify for federal student aid. Students won't go to schools where they won't get student aid, so any school with an innovative spin will get locked out, and competition is blocked. It's a recipe for disaster that's been playing out for decades. The bubble's gotta pop sooner or later. Also, major props to you with everything you're dealing with now. You're seriously a badass.

I remember one of my professors peddling us with “you need to read all of the books and sources on the Syllabus” just for him to declare at the end of the semester “it’s not possible to have read all of these books but hopefully you attended most of the lectures.” Huh? Safe to say I tried to do both. I believe my academia experience was challenging and unfulfilling to an extent. I completed an undergrad both in French and English literature (each of my semesters consisted of around 25-30 full length novels + critical sources) and my Master’s was much of the same. I do think I missed out on a lot of the *perks* of Academia and student life because I commuted 2 hours both ways every day. I was too drained to stay on campus and do anything but the readings on the bus and the subway. I often wonder the calibre of the work I could produce if I were on campus and had more time to attend office hours. Part of my reasoning to pursue a Master’s degree was to pay for my student loans. Had I not done so, I would be in debt. As soon as I completed my Master’s, I paid my loans in full (I had been working part time 2-3 jobs for 5 years.) I’m not kidding when I say I’ve been burn out ever since. Either way, I loved this video! It gave me a lot to think about. I’ll always be grateful for my learning experience but critical of universities.

I studied history in undergrad. Did ok but just barely good enough that I would be accepted into a grad school. I don’t regret my education and I left with zero debt although I sorta wish I had the whole “college experience.” Tbh, I’m a little jealous of you and your channel. Losing your tech job I’m sure hasn’t been easy, but you’re doing something you enjoy that can pay the bills albeit with little remaining. I have interest in teaching in secondary education. That’s another ballgame from teaching in college. I’ve been told I could be a good teacher but I wish the pay would be better as I ideally would have kids once I’m married and want to afford raising them. At the same time, I think I could be compassionate about preparing kids for adulthood and ultimately college if that’s their plans.

I live in Argentina so my perspective about USA universities isn't really that accurate obviously, but i'm really glad to see this because in the countries of latin america there is some idealization about the "outside" universities and, certainly, there aren't that perfect. So thanks Jared, as always :)