Response to the Greater Expectations Report 

•A college degree has in many ways become what a high school diploma became 100 years ago--the path to a successful career and to knowledgeable citizenship. As more educated-people are needed in the economy, the more education an individual needs in order to provide for their families and themselves. There is the expectation that the more education a person attains the more financial compensation they will receive. Although, there are many careers that are learned by specialized education needing fewer years of student cost and commitment like cosmetology, barbers, mechanics, and masseuses; however, many fields such as medical and legal fields require a student to invest more time, money, and effort to reap financial freedom, and personal rewards.

•The report calls for a dramatic reorganization of undergraduate education to ensure that all college aspirants receive not just access to college, but an education of lasting value. The report also proposes a series of specific actions and collaborations to raise substantially the quality of student learning in college. All students or aspirants should receive not just to school, but each student should be able to receive an education of lasting value in every grade level. If every child receives an education, as just described, and students are well prepared in elementary and high school levels, students entering college will be prepared to be enlightened, to be rewarding, and to be rewarded. Since there is more pressure for students to be empowered learners, informed learners, and responsible learners, more students are using the internet to gain the education they need, as more students feel that with their responsibility, and therefore more intense effort, to acquire knowledge without the traditional lectures and efforts of instructors they no longer need instructors but perhaps utilize ‘facilitators” (as one finds in the workplace where exists team organized systems) contributors of their learning experience. Facilitators in the learning systems would be guides to students who are progressive, empowered, informed, and responsible learners.

•The key to successful reform is a clear focus on the kinds of learning that students need for a complex world. The panel urges an invigorated and practical liberal education as the most empowering form of learning for the twenty-first century. As I listened to students in class, they seem to want to give less responsibility to instructors as teachers or educators, but suggest that the only assistance competent, self-motivated, students like them need may be given by facilitators (people without specific educational attainment) to conduct the class as an “organizational meeting,” that is, taking proposals, and giving suggestions and recognizing the deep understanding of one's self and respect for the complex identities of others, their histories, and their cultures. Taking Pedagogy out of the classroom environment would certainly take the quality of education into another dimension. The “phenomenology of certainty versus the phenomenology of ambiguity” as discussed in class could liberate students, and would certainly clear up any doubts educators may have about their significance in the new classroom environment.

It is my expectation that if we are to create intentional learners of the future as discussed in the article, Greater Expectations, we are going to need to empower more students with the essential skills necessary to organize their learning experience into arenas or learning centers that focus attention on a broader educational scope; therefore, with less assistance from their teachers the “student empowering” system can obtain volunteers (parents, or community minded people) as facilitators and therefore save the financial contributions to the present hordes of teachers, instructors, and professors consequently saving sufficient resources as to make it possible for classes to be constructed adequately and sufficiently to create empowered learners, informed learners, and responsible learners.

•Business leaders seek graduates who can think analytically, communicate effectively, and solve problems in collaboration with diverse colleagues, clients, or customers and can explore important issues in ways that respect a variety of viewpoints and deepen understanding.