Education's Cancer In a recent article for "Harper's" magazine titled, "On the Uses of a Liberal Education," by Mark Edmundson, a spark was created in hopes that it would start a fire that would shed light in a growing age of darkness within the universities today. Of the many problems that are constantly being battled in the school system, the author chose to write about something that is often overlooked by students. This problem, in fact, is hardly ever thought of to be a problem except by the teachers who must compromise their pupil's education and belittle their own self-respect in order to overcome it. The issue is not run-down buildings, obsolete facilities, equipment shortage, or any of those more common complaints. The issue addressed in the article is the expectations of college students to be entertained during school instead of being educated, and as a result, many students remembering their professors as entertainers instead of educators. The truths brought forth in the article are observed every day by students and almost always seem to go unnoticed. The college students today are so wrapped up in the virtues of consumerism and consumption that they are forgetting what it is to have an education and are simply settling for the bits of the knowledge that their teachers slip in between the punch-lines. "Before they arrive, we ply students with luscious ads, guaranteeing them a cross between summer camp and lotusland. Once here, flattery and nonstop entertainment are available, if that's what they want" (p47). College students need to learn that college is not there to meet their wants of the moment, but to give them an education that will aide them for the rest of their life. Some students decide to attend a college because of this reason or that reason and forget to look at the courses. They make the choice based upon which school they will have more fun at, on which school they will be able to participate in more extra-curricular activities that they enjoy, and colleges are not doing anything to control this fiasco. On the contrary, they use it to their advantage and just begin to market the pleasing nature of their campus and equipment. Colleges send out brochures and packets promoting their aesthetically pleasing campus, stunning landscapes, technological superiority, and other such nonsense in hopes that they will entice some unsuspecting consumer to come pay them for all this entertainment. They never explain how college is a serious decision and that it takes hard work and dedication to get through it. The incoming students do not want to do hard work, so the colleges just happen to leave that part out of their marketing schemes. The colleges, as the producer, know how to appease the consumers' desires and they do so by omitting certain pieces of information that may prove to be detrimental to their profits. The students, who have become accustomed to receiving benefits from their purchases instantaneously, expect to see the fruits of their purchase, not sometime in the future, but at this very moment. It is this expectation for immediate benefits that causes teachers to become performers instead of educators and the students to become the clients instead of pupils. The college professors are forced to appease the wants of the customer or else they may find themselves in search of a new position. Edmundson wrote "…I reap the rewards of my partial compliance with the culture of my students and, too, with the culture of the university as it now operates" (p40). In order for a teacher to get ahead, they must conform to the demands of the paying students or else they will be replaced by one who will. The devotion to consumption and entertainment has weaseled its way into the school systems and is destroying that which should never be destroyed: education. "I've seen older colleagues go through hot embarrassment at not having enough students sign up for their courses: They graded too hard, demanded too much…" (p45). College students are becoming more and more alike to customers: they are getting what they want from the producers by boycotting the goods that they dislike. The purpose behind college is to provide a higher level of learning for those interested in furthering their education. College is not meant to be easy nor is it meant to be entertaining. Receiving a degree from any institute of higher learning should not be a walk in the park, but a rugged hike up a mountain that leaves one thoroughly exhausted, but invigorated and enlightened. Instead of standing firm in the way that it should be, the teachers are being forced to give in to the wants of the students in order to continue teaching. The colleges need to revert back to the ways of teaching students instead of pleasing customers. The fact is that students are not customers, they are students and should be treated as such. With the consumer belief inside their head, students will get their priorities a bit jumbled. College students are more worried about how they feel and what others think of them than they are about learning the material of the class. "Students frequently come to my office to tell me how intimidated they feel in class; the thought of being embarrassed in front of the group fills them with dread" (p45). Their absurd fear of humiliation before their peers keeps them from truly learning in their classes what their teachers want them to know. The teacher's attempts to correct students will either offend the student because they are unwilling to take criticism or never happen at all because the student fears it and will not speak up. "My students, alas, usually lack the confidence to acknowledge what would be their most precious asset for learning: their ignorance." (p47). Students are living within a pristine bubble of naivete that they do not wish to be popped. They need a teacher who will challenge what they believe so they will not come crashing into reality in the future and so they will be better prepared to deal with life. College students rarely ever tap into the wealth of knowledge and life lessons that teach them and their peers and seem to be content to go through the class taking away from it some fine dinner table stories, but leaving the impacting message on the floor sitting next to their desk only to be swept up into the garbage. Their minds build up wrinkles of data to be regurgitated but their lives remain unchanged by the information that they have gained. They go into college to attain knowledge but they have forgotten that they also need wisdom to guide them in its use. The overwhelming ideas of consumerism that have been engrained into the minds of students is causing them to lose out on true education. The colleges have lost sight of the purpose of their establishment. They seek now to please a consumer, instead of mold a mind into a masterfully worked tool that will help shape the future. Student apathy and instructor conformity are resultants of another problem in today's society: consumerism. Consumerism is a cancer to the education process that, somehow, needs to be removed. Society needs to stop treating the symptoms, and start curing the disease so that their children might have a better foundation upon which to build the future.