Larry D. Lauer

Teaching is why I got into higher education in the first place. Even with the many administrative positions I held over the years, I continued to teach and lead professional development programs along the way. If there is any lesson I learned about teaching, it is that you cannot “teach to a test.” It creates an ever-expanding negative atmosphere, and eventually learning  is no longer satisfying and fun.

Teaching is about finding the talent potential within each student and working hard to develop it. Some do best with abstract thinking, or artistic expression. And they are likely to demonstrate it better by writing essays, or expressing themselves artistically, or presenting material orally. Some subjects lend themselves to memorizing facts, but many others require seeing big picture trends, thinking critically, or solving problems that have more than one right answer. This type person has the same potential for long-term career success as anyone else. He or she, however, is likely to become unmotivated in a quantitative testing environment that features threats of punishment for everyone involved–students, teachers, and administrators. 

Students with learning difficulties, no matter their cultural background, generally lack basic self-confidence and will not respond well to calculated discipline and pressure.  But an ideal teacher will find their special abilities and interests, use intellectual freedom to nurture them, and locate other mentors and influencers to reinforce them. In schools like this, pure magic can happen.

And what’s more, the teachers become energized.  This is when teaching becomes an art, and teachers get hooked on a way of life.  They sacrifice to stay in their profession rather than burn out and bail out as so many are doing today.  Most new teachers in a “teach to the test” environment last only a few years because threats out balance emotional and professional rewards.

My story as a student is a case example. A professor in junior college helped me discover that if I would pick the courses where I could write essays and term papers I could excel. Armed with this self understanding, the further along I progressed in school the better I performed. And when I eventually learned that being a teacher was really a wonderful life of “living a subject matter I could master,” I was hooked on the very profession that earlier was turning me off.

The key, therefore, to improving K-12 education is to find young people early who want to make a difference, and then help them see they can really do this as teachers. Encourage them in developing their own best talents, and make  sure they are in a learning environment that supports their quest. Simply put, teaching excellence requires the flexibility to deal with each student and situation individually, and getting to do it in a system that rewards doing it well.

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Everyone is concerned about the cost of higher education. Make no mistake, institutions are concerned too.  But finding solutions will be difficult.

The president’s recent proposal that institutions that fail to keep tuition low will be punished by receiving less student financial aid will only be constructive if it leads to honest industry and government dialogue. Otherwise, it sets a totally negative tone, and demonstrates no comprehension of the management realities facing today’s colleges and universities. 

First, it must be acknowledged that diversity of type is what distinguishes US academic institutions in all the world. Second, that diversity means that even now there is a quality institution somewhere accessible to most everyone desiring an education. That said, virtually every institution I know is also working hard to cut expenses, and to keep its net price as low as possible.

For solutions to be found, it must first be acknowledged that each institution has a different set of factors each year that determine budget and pricing.  For example, each  one  serves a specific market, and must respond to the expectations of those in that market. For many, maintaining a high level of academic productivity with top performing faculty and state of the art facilities is expensive. Also, certain types of programs cost more to offer than others, and so financial parameters will vary widely among institutions.

For everyone the cost of maintaining buildings and grounds moves higher every year. When utilities and vendors increase prices, everything else is affected. Universities are really small cities and have similar constantly increasing maintainance challenges. And it also must be noted that costs driven by the need to monitor and comply with over 25 categories of government regulations is counterproductive to keeping costs lows.     

An acknowledgement that each institution is different, that government-funded financial aid is critical, that the amount of regulation should reconsidered, and that universities are capable of creative cost-cutting initiatives, is the constructive way forward. As with so many of the issues facing this country, if government and higher education  will  accept that each has a role to play in this solution, and will sit down together to collaborate, I have no doubt that we can make higher education available to everyone.

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