And some want to 'work' with Sallie Mae?!?

Some reformers apparently want to "work" with Sallie Mae. Disgusting. Disgusting. Disgusting. That's like the 99% asking to "work" with Wall Street to solve the austerity crisis, or pro-Obamaites reaching out to Trump and the birthers to clear that b$*%# up. Just watch the language deteriorate with the reformers, just watch it. I've already seen it changing. It's weakening. Weakening tremendously. Oh, boy, here we go again . . .
 

Reformer: "We should reach out to him, and 'work' with this guy on the birther issue! Yeah. Great idea!"

Mark Your Calendars: NYC's First Debtors Assembly, June 10th, 2012

If you are the NYC area, I encourage you to attend the first Debtors Assembly on June 10th.

In order to denounce our debt bondage, we must come together collectively in order to succeed. Read the Occupy Student Debt Campaign statement closely, too.

Have fun overcoming your shame of being a debtor.

Indentured Educated Citizens Unite!

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/OccupyStudentDebtCampaign
Twitter: @StdntDebtPledge
Website: Occupy Student Debt Campaign

Crucial Read: A Statement from the Occupy Student Debt Campaign

Occupy Student Debt Campaign recently released a lengthy statement about their mission. They differentiate themselves from other groups - who are, in my view, reformist - quite well in this manifesto. I applaud their efforts, and encourage you to get involved with supporting and promoting their collective activism. The group truly understands a horizontal approach to attacking this monstrous problem. More than anything, the principles explained below demonstrate a keen awareness of how neoliberalism has destroyed higher education (and education overall) as a public good. This is at the heart of the problem, so no type of reform, which if anything were to pass would be utterly watered down, will suffice. Reform through legislation, though admirable, will not adequately address the crisis we are now facing. 

Here's their statement:

Everybody is now talking about the student debt crisis, but nothing is being done about it.

Thanks in large part to the great public amplifier of the Occupy movement, this year’s presidential contenders have been forced to embrace student loan reform as a talking point in their respective campaigns. But the debt relief being pushed by the Obama administration is a token gesture, aimed at getting some traction on the youth vote -- especially the more disillusioned or alienated student constituencies. Recent bills introduced in Congress -- Student Loan Forgiveness Act (H.R. 4170) and the Private Student Bankruptcy Fairness Act (H.R. 2028) -- have zero chance of passing in anything like their current form. Practically speaking, no reform program of any substance is on the legislative horizon, least of all one that would regulate the predatory lending practices of Wall Street banks.

The truth is that student debt relief is too important to be left to elected officials. They are chronically dependent on the financial backing of the lending industry, and are structurally incapable of addressing this crisis, let alone resolving it. As a result, reform initiatives such as Student Loan Justice and Forgive Student Debt (to Stimulate the Economy) that have been aimed at petitioning lawmakers have very little to show for all their hard effort.

The recent federal modifications in payment schedules are micro-cosmetic compared to the sea-change that is required to free debtors of their intolerable burdens and rescue higher education from its increasing use as a profit engine for financiers, asset speculators, and real estate developers. The pathway to this outcome does not lie in futile pleas for economic reform, but through a political movement, driven by self-empowerment and direct action on the part of debtors.

The Occupy Student Debt Campaign was launched at Zuccotti Park in November 2011 with the goal of building a student debt abolition movement. Our campaign is based on principles for which we believe there is widespread support

1) Free public education, through federal coverage of tuition fees.
2) Zero-interest student loans, so that no one can profit from them
3) Fiscal transparency at all universities, public as well as private
4) The elimination of current student debt, through a single act of relief.

These are interlocking principles, and should not stand on their own. Imagine a world in which lawmakers were to respond positively to the current calls for debt “forgiveness” (an unfortunate term that implies the debtor has sinned). Such a measure would offer much-needed relief, but it would still disadvantage future debtors if it were not complemented by remedies that brought to an end the practice of compelling students to privately fund higher education by going into debt bondage. So, too, a singular focus on reducing interest rates (even to zero) is more likely to encourage colleges to increase their fees than to open up equitable access to education.

In light of Wall Street’s stranglehold on Congress, the Occupy Student Debt Campaign holds that alternative strategies are necessary to promote and publicize our principles. That is why it endorses the practice of debt refusal as a legitimate response to the predicament of individuals and communities targeted by predatory lenders, or by state officials seeking to pass on the costs of the financial crisis in the guise of austerity measures. Greece, Chile, England, Italy, Spain, and Quebec have all seen popular revolts against government efforts to preserve, and extend, the power of financial elites to discipline selected populations. With each new outbreak of people’s voices, the imposition of debt is publicly exposed, not simply as a means of redistributing wealth upwards, but also as an instrument of social control.
 
Under current U.S. laws, defaulting on a student debt carries serious penalties. These laws are unjust, but they are a sharp deterrent to individuals who might otherwise consider refusing their debts. In response, our campaign advocates collective action. Even in its absence, the default rates are accelerating, with alarming consequences. Our Pledge of Refusal is framed as a debt strike threat (debtors pledge to withhold payments once a million others have signed). We welcome, and will support, other forms of debt refusal/strike that are consistent with the aim of building a broad political movement.          

The culture of honoring all debts, even those unjustly incurred, is not universally respected, least of all on Wall Street. Loans are new forms of money and credit. They are created from nothing for the ultimate benefit of the lender; they are little more than numbers on a computer screen. Bankers know this, and so they treat their own debts accordingly, as matters to be renegotiated, restructured, or written off. Only the little people are supposed to pay in full. As this double standard becomes more and more apparent, debt refusal will emerge as the most rational response to an immoral predicament.
                  
The struggle over wages was a defining feature of the industrial era. We believe that the struggle over debt will play a similar role in our own times. Not because wage-conflict is over (it never will be), but because debts, for most people, are the wages of the future.

Join Us!

The Occupy Student Debt Campaign
Web: www.occupystudentdebtcampaign.org
Twitter: @StdntDebtPledge
Facebook: OccupyStudentDebtCampaign

(N.B. Our campaign tactics differ from those who own the Occupy Student Debt domain name, and who have no relationship to Occupy Wall Street)

Quick Note: Lots of Eyeballs Looking At . . .

Suicide and student loans

as well as

Fleeing the country to avoid debt

This eyeball is looking at your eyeballs

500,000 Students in Montreal Take to the Streets

Here is one reason why I love students - this is just inspiring. Props to the badass protesters in Montreal. You make all of us proud! 500,000 students marched on the 100th day of a strike. Talk about continued momentum. They showed up after the police declared that it was illegal to protest. That's brave!

And today, student groups and activists showed up at Sallie Mae's HQ to protest at the shareholders meeting. Watch the video - it's well worth it, because the loan shark's building is surrounded by riot cops. Ain't that grand.

There are also a handful of students in the UC system who are on a hunger strike. That is damned gutsy as well.

Those are just a few examples of how students and student debtors are rising up. The protests of young people and students is now a worldwide phenomenon.

This ain't going away! We're onto the schemes and understand how neoliberalism has turned millions of us into permanent debtors. The time has come for this to end. The time is now.

Mitt Romney Wants To Bring Socialism Back For The Banks And The Student Lenders

Mitt Romney gave a speech on education yesterday. Most of it was about K-12, but in a related policy paper, he made it clear that he wants to bring a form of socialism back for the lenders. If he is elected, Romney would ensure that the middlemen - who the Obama administration ousted - would again be heavily subsidized by the government. That means Sallie Mae, Nelnet, and the other loan sharks would be propped again by taxpayers.

This is terrible policy. These lenders still have tremendous power over debtors who had been part of the FFEL program. This can't happen again. This is one of many reasons why Mitt Romney cannot win the election.

A man who urges people to "shop around" for colleges doesn't have a clue about the student loan debt crisis. His policy advisors are dreadful too. One of them - Bill Hansen - worked in the Department of Education while George W. Bush was President. The Department has enough of these types still there, but bringing back more of them would be devastating to borrowers and their families.

Clearly, Romney is an adamant believer in the Vidalian concept of  "free enterprise for the poor and socialism for the rich."

"More indentured educated Americans? That's what I want!"

Living Abroad As A Student Debtor

I have written several pieces in the past about what it is like for people with student loan debt to live and work abroad. (Some of the folks I interviewed had no debt, because living abroad allowed them to pay off their debt or they chose to go to graduate school outside of the U.S.)

I can assure you that living outside of this country is more than just rewarding - it provides you with a new sense of freedom. I myself lived in S. Korea for a year, and it was phenomenal. I felt like a human being again with freedom. It was a far cry from life as a debtor in this country, where at every turn you are being robbed by fees, high interest rates, over-priced living quarters, etc. I will share how much my living expenses were, something that still makes me gasp when I compare it to the cost of living here.

In the next coming weeks, I'll be writing about what life can be like abroad, and I'll draw from my own experiences and that of others. 

Many people have expressed an interest in hearing about this possibility, so I thought I'd share.

If you would like to chime in with your own stories of what it's like to live abroad as a student debtor, feel free to either comment on these pieces or shoot your story to me via email - ccrynjohannsen [AT] gmail [DOT] com.

High Schools should not exist; 50th reunions teach you more than high school ever did

I hated high school. I didn’t see anything good about it.

I still hate high school, but now as a person who has spent the last 30 years trying to understand what is wrong with our education system I understand why.

Here are five good reasons to hate high school.

   

1. The subjects taught are the subjects that were current in academic circles in 1892 
2. High school is about college prep these days. The prep that goes on is about AP tests and not about what a college student really needs. College professors can never assume their students learned anything important in high school. There is no reason for high schools to assume that role, except they are intimidated into it by parents.
3. In high school, the other kids are a student’s biggest concern. KIds intimidate other kids in so many ways that most students can think about little else.  
4. There is no freedom in high school. You take what courses you are told to take for the most part and must be where they tell you to be. It is a lot like being in prison.
5. Except for the extra curricula activities, high school just isn’t any fun. Kids should have fun and learning should be fun.

So, it is it in this context that I want to tell a personal story.

The invitation from  the Stuyvesant High School class of 1962 50th reunion arrived via e-mail. I didn’t like Stuyvesant. As a smart kids science high school in New York City it had the so called best and brightest who were, of course, tremendously competitive. I hadn’t done particularly well in high school. I graduated ranked #322 in a class of 678. Notice how I remember that. I had been to my 25th reunion just to see old friends and because I happened to have a place in New York at that time, but none of my old friends showed up.

I had a wedding to attend that weekend. But it was in New York and I again have a place in New York, so I decided to attend one high school reunion event. I am glad I did, and here is why:

I got an email about a month before the event saying that they were thinking about holding a special event and they thought they’d invite the three most successful members of the graduating class to talk about their views of the future. I get invitations to talk all the time, and I wasn’t surprised that I have done better than the other members of the class. (I had attended my 25th after all where I learned that the kids who had graduated #1 and #2 hadn’t done that much later on.)

The shocker for me was whom the invitation came from. The writer opened the letter by saying that he was sure I didn’t remember him but...

Oh, I remembered him. He had affected by entire life in high school and probably still does affect my life. (Remember reason #3 above.)

This kid always wore a jacket and tie to school. Every day. He was in my homeroom, and he was not particularly friendly. He was dead serious. He intended to go to Harvard and he intended to become a doctor and he was going to do everything he could to get there. The jacket and tie was part of the plan.

Meeting him and hearing this plan when I was 13 years old convinced me not to study, not to even try in high school, and to spend my time out of school playing ball. If this was the competition I didn’t want to compete. And I didn’t. (Remember 322?) 

I didn’t compete in college either where I graduated with an even worse class rank and with a C average. And I never wore a tie.

So there was some sweetness in getting this invitation from this particular guy. I had never forgotten him. I did wonder what had happened to him however. He did go to Harvard, but did not become a doctor. He is a PhD in some biological field which is close enough, but he was not one of the famous members of our class.

The event he was planning never came off. (It seems high school politics keep going on 50 years later.) I went to the reunion to meet him.

I was pleasantly surprised. He was certainly the smartest one of the people that I spoke with at the reunion. I told him my story and he admitted that maybe he had been a little up tight in high school and he apologized for intimidating me. Life had made him less arrogant it was easy to see.

There is a lesson in all this of course. The obvious one I have already stated. High school is a bad thing. We should stop having them. High school teaches many bad lessons. The one it taught me was that I wasn’t that smart and I shouldn’t try too hard.

But the good news is that my life taught me otherwise. I learned to trust my own intelligence and to be suspicious of people who are trying hard to be something they may not actually be.

And the reunion taught me that 50 years later real experiences can get you to revise your opinions of things. We are always learning, just not in school.

Did you stop going to college and have student loan debt?

If you took a leave of absence from college, did not graduate, and have student loans, I'd like to hear from you.

Email me - ccrynjohannsen [AT] gmail [dot] com.

Bloomberg: Taxpayers Fund $454,000 for Collector Chasing Student Loans

What a headline! We need to get taxpayers on board with debtors for a revolt.

Occupy Student Debt Campaign

Fleeing the country to avoid student loans?

There seem to be a lot of people considering this option. Rest assured, if you leave the country, you will find plenty of companions abroad. In fact, there are many indentured educated Americans who have decided this option was the best for them. I call them student loan debt refugees.

I have lived abroad myself, so if folks are interested, I can share what it was like to save money, have a job abroad, etc. (Just let me know).

There are so many young Americans who are graduating right now, and they are realizing quickly how bad things are when it comes to surviving in this punishing place.

The work on behalf of millions of debtors continues as more join our ranks.

No Need To Hide The Truth: We Don't CARE If People Default

They don't beat around the bush when they're talking to a particular audience. Today Bloomberg published an article, "Discount ABS May Benefit From Student Defaults, Citigroup Says," stating, "Discounted asset-backed securities tied to government-guaranteed student loans could benefit from defaults, according to Citigroup Inc. (C)."

When they talk about government-guaranteed student loans, they are referring to the Federal Family  Education Loan Program (FFEL). FFEL is no longer in existence, thanks to the Obama administration, but there is still billions and billions of dollars worth of outstanding loans through the program.

Does this mean we'll see an acceleration of defaults, because this will help investors?

Great system we have here, you know? They are openly talking about the benefits of people defaulting.

Election Day Voter Registration

All Education Matters, and other affiliated partners, supports Common Cause California!

Support them too by signing this petition that calls for Election Day Voter Registration. This is one way to denounce voter suppression.

HLN Interview Today

Tune in to  HLN today at 3:15 est / 12:15 pst to hear me  discuss the Student Loan interest rate hike act 2012.

Suicidal Debtor Writes Again, "Through my tears, I decided to come back to the blog to see if there was anything new, and I found my story posted."

If you are suicidal, please call: The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline 1-800-273-8255
 
I am really glad that this poster came back and found that their remarks had been turned into a short piece about the student lending crisis. Here is why we must work on outreach, so that people know that they are not alone, and that we must band together to fight back.

Here's what they just wrote:

Today was an especially low day for me; I spent it pacing and panicking. My dark thoughts came back into my mind again and they're really starting to scare me. One of my loans is coming out of deferment this month and I'm terrified. Through my tears, I decided to come back to the blog to see if there was anything new, and I found my story posted. Thank you, Cryn. I feel touched and in a strange way, loved by a fellow human being. Thank you to those of you who responded. I've seen so many negative comments online (in opposition to student loan relief) from people who just don't understand, so I was surprised to see some support. I still feel rotten, but it feels as if someone has lit a candle in my dark room - so that's good at least.

I think we need the support group. If there's a way to open it up to good people who won't say abusive things to those who are already down, I think we should go for it. It might give us all some peace. Maybe we can find a way to band together somehow and fight back like you said in the post, Cryn.

If there's something I can do to help with that, please let me know. I don't exactly have a job anyway and it might help me divert my energy toward something positive.

And to the person living south of the border: it'd be great to learn more details regarding how to go about doing that (if you're willing to share). Exile seems to be my only living option.

The negative and nasty comments can be emotionally draining. So refocusing one's energy on the work that people are doing to raise awareness about the crisis and also provide solutions is a smart move. We need to be reminded that there are a lot of compassionate people out there who care about our mental health. We're in this together, and we'll get out of it together.

Listen to me discuss the student lending crisis and suicidal notes I receive with Rose Aguilar (@roseaguilar) on May 7th.

Interview with Rose Aguilar on Your Call

I was interviewed today by radio host Rose Aguilar (@roseaguilar). If you missed the conversation, you can listen to it here. Pamela Brown (@pambrown15), who helped launch the Occupy Student Loan Debt "Refusal Pledge" Campaign, joined me to discuss the student lending crisis.

The lines were jammed, and we heard from people who have fled the country and used to feel suicidal. A young man called in and told us he has no hope about the future. It is an alarming thing to hear from a person who is so young. It should be considered a national tragedy.

Thomas M. Cooley Has Subpoenaed Me

So, it looks like Thomas M. Cooley is subpoenaing me too. Law Professor Paul Campos also wrote today that the law school has subpoenaed him. 

Stay tuned for more details.

Lawrence Meyers at InvestorPlace.com says, "profit from" the misery created by the student lending crisis

So, Lawrence Meyers over at InvestorPlace.com wants everyone to know that we shouldn't be angry about the student lending crisis. In his piece, "How to Profit From the Student Loan Bubble," he spews out a bunch of advice to help all of you greedy investors make some bucks from this wonderful form of debt bondage!

This dairy cow wrote an article for InvestorPlace too. He doesn't entirely agree with Meyers.

Meyers makes it clear. Don't be angry. Nope.  Instead, you should profit from the fiasco. Oh, and he places the blame on "fiscally irresponsible" states. Yeah, uh, that's a really nuanced understanding of the crisis, dude. Way to go with that neoliberal-mumbo-jumbo. The states and the local governments are to blame. It has nothin' to do with how higher education has been privatized and led to the creation of a fake, greedy, usurious industry. Nope. You got it right, Meyers. 

"Man, like, I'm not sure that what you're sayin' is, like, totally true . . ."

On a side note, I'd like to ask Meyers, so what if 36 million people - that's how many people have outstanding federal loans - took your sagely advice, and invested in the companies you suggest. How would that turn out? I'm curious.

We know that these folks, however, can't invest in the balloon, because they are barely making ends meet. But this great guy wants you to invest in the bubble that is destroying millions of lives in your own country, and eroding higher education. That's how you're a real patriot! You invest in stuff that hurts other people! Great work, Meyers. Classy advice.

Hmmm . . . maybe she's onto something . . . (Photo Credit: AP/Peter Dejong)

He closes with this great remark: "Keep your eye on the situation — more profits can be made from this kind of uncertainty." Ah, yes, spoken like a true capitalist. Just turn a profit, and don't ever, ever consider issues surrounding morality or ethics. That's just silliness!

"I just made a huge profit on student loan debtors' debt! Thanks, Larry!"

So, yeah, the crazy conclusion is this: it's great to be greedy. Who gives a sh*t if it's at the expense of others? I mean, if you can make a profit, then you are good to go. Then you can by that big-a$$ RV that guzzles gas and drive it all over the U.S. While you're out on the road, you'll probably see more homeless people like I did when driving across country again. There are more of them. Also, you'll see more abandoned homes and abandoned animals. But, hey, you made a profit and you deserve that trip across America Miseryland.

Also, don't think about generations to come who will join the ranks of the indentured educated class. Nope. Just make that profit. Look out for yourself, and to hell with the rest of us!

Another Suicidal Student Loan Debtor: "I feel like I've lost all hope. I have been suicidal for a while now."

If you are suicidal, please call: The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline 1-800-273-8255
 
This is neither easy to read nor easy to write about, but it is important to acknowledge the voices of those who are in such low places that they would rather be dead than alive. They see their lives as ruined. They have little energy. They have no hope. We need to remind them that there are groups fighting for them, and if they have the strength they too can join with others in this battle.

I'm receiving more desperate notes again, and I want them to be heard loud and clear. They should not be hidden in the comments - they deserve to have full light and total exposure, because people need to be aware of how punishment in the form of debt bondage destroys a person's soul and will to live.

Check out the Occupy Student Loan Debt Campaign

This woman's voice moved me deeply. In a response to questions I asked in an earlier post, here's what she had to say:

(Author's note: I have reformatted and omitted some of her remarks - she answered numerical questions)

[I owe] almost $200,000.00 and my husband owes almost $200,000.00. Together, [it's] almost $400,000.00. If we were in full repayment, this would cost us almost $4,000 a month in minimum payments. This exceeds our take-home pay. And no, we are not doctors.

I have a B.A. in Sociology and an M.A. in Educational Psychology. My husband has a B.S. and an M.S. Both schools that I attended were state universities, in-state. One of which was Arizona State, whose in-state tuition rivals that of for-profit schools and is rising. I am not employed. I'm looking for work. We live off of my husband's salary. So no, I am not employed and no, we are not able to pay on our student loans with one salary.

 We rent an apartment on the other side of the country from our family. We're trying to move back home so that we can at least try to make our minimum payments, but despite aggressive attempts to find jobs in their area for the last 10 months, we've been unable to and are still stuck paying about $1,700 a month for our one-bedroom apartment on the east coast. And this is a 'good deal.'

I've developed insomnia, anxiety and depression. I cannot get out of bed in the morning without physical pain because I'm so depressed. I am on medication that only slightly helps take the edge off, but that has been difficult to afford. Even when it's sunny outside, I have such a dark cloud over me that it feels like it's dark. I don't enjoy anything anymore. Even good news is painful to me because I'm sad that I can't enjoy it. I feel like I've lost all hope. I have been suicidal for a while now. The only thing that keeps me living is that I don't want my poor husband to have to face his debt without my emotional support.

I feel like a failure. I just turned 30 today and I don't see having children as an option at any point in my life. My husband is 40 - he's never had children or a house, either. I'm afraid to answer the door, check the mail or look at my E-mail because I'm panicked that there will be bad news. I feel like I'm developing agoraphobia. I fear for my future - if I default and the banks can go after my retirement, bank accounts and social security, what will happen to me when I'm an elderly person? Will I have to live on the streets?

I am often angry. I'm angry I was scammed, angry that I've lost control of my life and angry that I'm a modern-day slave. There are a whole lot of people who do bad things - they steal, kill and spend irresponsibly. They all get second chances, but I do not because I went to college. I am angry because evil people have been allowed to lobby Congress and evil leaders of this country allowed themselves to be tempted and failed to protect students. Everything I went to school for is now out of my reach because I went to school.

Oh, and before you judge me, I got stuck with my ex-husband's loans, so my debt includes student debt for two people... not to mention the usurous [sic] interest that can quickly double, triple, or quadruple a loan in no time. My husband also went to flight school which is why his are so high. He graduated only to find out that major airlines in today's world hire pilots at $25,000 a year.

What has this world come to? Why even try anymore? 

 The question about what the world has come to is a good one. It's completely out of whack, isn't it? We have been left to our own devices, and yet we're still buried in debt, so self-reliance is damned hard, if not impossible, to truly achieve. Think about this - you might be a self-sufficient person. When there are economic downturns of this nature, you learn quickly how to make due with less, save things, strengthen support networks, and so forth. This makes you feel stronger and proud of your self-reliance. But when you stop to think about all the debt hanging over your head, and if one thing goes wrong, you're suddenly on a fast track to defaulter's hell, you realize that that self-sufficiency has been stolen from you too. Well, just as I said yesterday, we don't like the fact that our futures have been stolen from us, and we don't like that we can't feel entirely self-sufficient. We're here to get that back too. Oh, and did I mention that we want our damned dignity back as well?

We're here to collect a lot of things that rightfully belong to us.

Cesare Ripa's Allegory of Dignity

Student Loan Debtor: "[T]he reality is that I think of killing myself all the time"

If you are suicidal, please call: The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline 1-800-273-8255

Recently, yet another student loan debtor shared their thoughts about being suicidal, demoralized, and trapped because of their student loans on this post. When I receive these notes, my blood boils as I think about the cold distance that some policymakers in higher ed circles have from this obvious suffering.

The situation has become desperate for many people with student loans. Remember: you are not alone. It is important to remember that fact. And there are ways in which you can organize to fight back. For instance, get involved with Occupy. They are doing great things on this specific issue, especially the Occupy Student Loan Debt Campaign. Since the crisis is based upon enormous systemic problems, we will need to work collectively to come up with long-term and short-term solutions. If policymakers refuse, we will just come up with other options to bring much needed relief to debtors. One way or another, the crisis will come to an end, and that's why agency, collective agency, is crucial.

Here is what's happening to people now, however - this garbage, how we're shackled by these loans, has turned parts of our minds into wasted spaces. Our imagination has been stolen from us. We live in fear now. We are more fearful of the future. We think about our debt all the time. They have stolen time from us - all of our time. Our time now, our time in the future. But when you do this - when you commit the sin of usury - there is a time when it comes to an end. People don't like it when their futures are stolen from them. Those of us who are no longer stuck in this hell of sorts have decided something, too. We're done being enslaved by student loan debt. We're done being pawns in this usurious scheme. We're here to reclaim what rightfully belongs to us: our futures.

But right now, many of us are still struggling with these negative thoughts. These are not our own thoughts - they do not belong to us. They are the thoughts that you have foisted upon the indentured educated class. You have turned many of us into demoralized beings. You have turned many of us into suicidal people. Even so, many of us still have strength. Why? Because we have learned that we are not alone. We have become a collective of debtors, so our singular indebted identity is being lost. Our ranks are growing each day. That is what you are now facing - a collective that has broken free from being atomized by debt.

But we - the indentured educated class - need to get everyone out of the psychological shackles.

Like this person. They are getting there, but they need to be closer than they are. Here's what they wrote:

The general public doesn't understand how crushing and demoralizing student loan debt is. Somehow it's your fault of wanting a better life and doing it in the heavily prescribed manner. I exist and am fortunate to have family that cares, but the debt and unreasonable financial burdens it creates means I don't have a life. I do not have many experiences that make me feel like I have my own life. There is no way out and it forces me into cyclical patterns of depression where the realization of how unmanageable my student loan debt is leads me to think of how corrupt our educational system/government/financial leaders are in order to perpetuate such a cannibalistic system and I feel even less hope for my future and get further depressed. I fight to maintain hope and do a lot of reading to try and stay inspired to succeed but the reality is that I think of killing myself all the time and I don't feel ashamed about it because I think it is a normal response when humans feel that there is absolutely no solution available to them. In fact, the concept of suicide to relieve physical pain is so accepted that it is pervasive in our media (i.e. films) and is even practiced as medicine by some doctors. You can sign an order to not resuscitate and that is socially acceptable. Somehow for the anguish and pain that comes with facing a destitute and hopeless lifestyle when all you wanted to do was improve your life, suicide is not accepted. I could go on .... I wish everyone who is experiencing this crippling pain a quick change of fortune, a miracle, some hope and extend my sympathy. I did my research on my insurance policy, I can leave this place when it gets to be too much for me (probably soon).

I hope this person doesn't leave out of choice or any time soon. I want them to know, I want all of you to know, that you're not alone. We must organize. People are already doing it - get involved, get support, and get organized. We don't need a change of fortune or a miracle. We need to be firmly here, based in reality, and working together to break these damned shackles and ensure that higher education becomes free again.

Indentured educated citizens, unite!
 

Harvard and MIT announce free on line courses; this will change education?

On line education is certainly booming these days. Today MIT and Harvard announced a plan to provide free on line courses.  I find this ironic given that I’ve advocated “virtual learning” for over twenty years – with little response. Universities I formerly worked at routinely showed scant interest in offering online degrees or serious online programs. Now, however, with the sudden appearance of for-profit ventures and the interest of venture capitalists, universities are being signed up to offer on line degrees, and have begun independently building and offering on line degrees.

Yet when you ask nearly anyone in academics about these degree programs, the overwhelming opinion is that they’re awful. Even the people promoting them seem to agree on that; in my last column I quoted the provost of the University of Michigan talking about his deal with Coursera:

Our Coursera offerings will in no way replace the rich experiences our students obtain in classrooms, laboratories and studios here in Ann Arbor.

Well, right. Because they are aren’t very good. Reaching 100,000 students on line may seem like a good idea, but we fail to ask the real question: what kind of educational experience is provided on line?

I am writing about this today in particular because my company, Socratic Arts, has just begun constructing four on line masters degree programs in Computer Science. We have a great deal of experience in doing this, of course, having built a number of masters programs for Carnegie Mellon’s Silicon Valley campus ten years ago (that they still offer, but not on line.) We also recently launched an MBA program with La Salle University in Barcelona that’s soon to be available in a number of Eastern European countries as well.

Now, with the backing of investors, we have decided to start building additional on line degree programs. But – and this is a big “but” – these programs will do far more than replace the existing classroom offerings of major universities. At heart, they’re meant to seriously disrupt the very concept of how education is provided.

Getting universities to agree to work with us hasn’t been easy. Why do they prefer to work with 2Tor or Coursera or Udacity? This is very easy to answer. Those companies want to do what the existing universities already do. Universities do not want to change how they do things. They can’t eliminate lectures, for example, without eliminating the basic economic structure upon which a university is based. They cannot emphasize teaching over research when their financial stability depends on major research funding. They want to essentially copy their existing classroom courses, because they have no other choice.

Socratic Arts, on the other hand, wants to do it right. What does that mean? That means convincing faculty to re-think education in a serious way. To explain what I mean and to illustrate these differences, I’ve chosen eight arguments that faculty have against our methodology. Or, rather, that we have against theirs.

Theory before practice

In most university programs, they teach theory first and practice second. You wouldn’t teach the theory of walking to a two-year old, nor would you teach the theory of economics to someone who was opening a lemonade stand. No one sits still for theoretical discussions when they are ready to try to do something. No one except college students of course, who have no choice. Universities are wedded to theory first because they often don’t know how to actually teach practice, and because it is much easier to talk about something then to do it. But the real reason is that professors like talking and they like research and theory. It is what they do in their own lives. So that is what they teach.

Socratic Arts does it the other way around of course, that is, if we ever teach theory at all, which is often quite unnecessary.

Coverage

Masters degree programs offer coverage. What does that mean? That means that the faculty have a wide range of research interests and when they sit down to design a masters program, everyone wants what they specialize in to be covered. For this reason, most masters degree programs are incoherent and unorganized. They are simply a list of courses to choose from that represent what the faculty has to teach. There is no end game. No one is thinking about what kind of person they are producing at the end of the program. No one asks what the student will be able to do when he or she is finished.

That, by the way, is the first question Socratic Arts asks when it starts to work with a university. The question is usually met with blank stares.

Replicating the classroom

Universities have classrooms and they think they should always have them because some deity must have wanted it that way. The idea that a classroom is a basically bad idea because it forces one teacher to talk and students to listen, is not discussed. Getting rid of the classroom in the era of easily findable information is sometimes thought about, but cannot actually be done without making professors do an entirely different job than they are used to doing. And professors are, in general, very conservative when it comes to changing the way they do things. More teaching responsibility is on no professor’s list of things to wish for.

Socratic Arts makes professors into mentors or coaches who help students as they need help with tasks they are interested in performing. Our idea of a teacher is much more like a normal idea of a parent -- there when you need him or her to help you figure it out for yourself.

Teachers as information deliverers

Get rid of lectures. No one remembers what they heard in a lecture a week later. They are there for ancient reasons. Most on line courses simply deliver the lecture on line and think they have done something miraculous. Nothing could be sillier. What can be conveyed by a lecture in an hour could take weeks of practice to actually learn.

There are no lectures in Socratic Arts on line programs.

Discussion of experiences, not replication of experiences

We learn by doing. Plato said that. Dewey said that. Einstein said that. Almost every educational philosopher has said that. Education means providing experiences, real or simulated, that a student can make mistakes in; try again; think about what went wrong, and try again. While this does happen in PhD programs as a matter of course, it almost never happens in masters or undergraduate programs, or even in a typical college course.

All Socratic Arts masters programs are experiential. They create experiences that lead to experiences that lead to more complex experiences. They are, for this reason, very engaging and fun. Professors know how to do this, but the very structure of a masters program tends to prevent it.

Simultaneous courses

The structure that prevents it is the idea that a student must take four or five courses simultaneously. This structure exists so that professors can only teach three hours a week and then can go back to research. It also exists because it always has existed. Why high school students have fifty minute periods for every subject is incomprehensible.

When we built our masters programs at Carnegie Mellon, we made the registrar crazy because all courses were sequential and thus no student was taking more than one course at a time, they started and stopped at odd times in the term, and grades were unavailable when the registrar wanted them. We managed by lying to the registrar. Disruption isn’t easy.

A properly constructed masters program would have students concentrating on doing something, and only when they complete what they’re doing will they start on something else that builds on the prior task. This is what I have called a Story Centered Curriculum since the entire masters program is delivered in the form of a story in which the student has many roles to play.

Use of outside experts

Why is the professor the only teacher in a course? There are many experts in the world. On line experiences allow for many experts to be recorded and have the right expert pop up at the right time to share his or her wisdom about exactly the mistake you are making or the issue about which you are curious. Really, in the age of the internet shouldn’t there be hundreds of experts available to students who are working on something? Pre-recording expert stories and delivery just in time is the sine qua non of on line education. At least it is a sine qua non of Socratic Arts’ idea of education. As far as I know, no other on line courses do this.

Deliverables not tests

In every masters programs we build, students have to produce real deliverables every week or so. They are judged on what they built, wrote, or presented, and the mentors then help them make it better. No tests. Any on line course that ends in a multiple choice test is simply a mockery that makes a sham of education. There are thousands of on line courses that end in multiple choice tests. They are useful for pretending we have convinced a bad driver to now be more careful. They don’t do that of course but authorities like to think they do. You learn nothing from studying for multiple choice tests except how to study for multiple choice tests. Real life requires real work. Students should be judged by the work they produce. Socratic Arts masters degree programs are built like that.

I am writing this diatribe for a simple reason. We now have a large amount for money available to start building masters degrees. I am seeking universities who want to work with us, but these universities need to abandon their old models in the new on line space. I would be happy to hear from people who think their university could do that. MIT and Harvard will continue to pretend they are doing something important but free courses are not free degrees and courses never really worked that well in the first place. Students don’t typically attend college because of all the great courses. Universities may like to think that but while a Harvard degree may well be worth a lot, Harvard courses are just a form of entertainment.