Defining "Quality" in College Education Philosophy

How can we measure the value of a person's education?  In terms of degrees obtained and numbers of credit hours in particular disciplines?  There can be significant variation in actual results from two people with the same amount of coursework.  Metrical notions of quality in education philosophy should not be used.  If you think about it, it doesn't make any sense to define quality of education by a quantitative measurement, for quality and quantity are two completely different ideas!  Yet there are intelligent ways of using them together.

We need to clearly define abstract categories of human ability.  If we look at the full spectrum of human ability, we will find that a college education will typically leave big gaps in certain areas of ability, at the same time overemphasizing some areas over others.  First we shall divide the full spectrum into 3 subcategories:  Mind - Feelings - Body.  The ideal human education would have an overall balance of abilities, but the reality is a profound unbalance found in the education systems of today.  Mind is not integrated into the levels of Feelings and Body, while the development of Feelings in relation to Body is absent.

Evolving the education system could be handled much more intelligently if we were to spectrally analyze the abilities that are used for each type of learning event.  Establishing a quantitative correspondence to the qualitative spectrum would allow suggestive analysis of the results that can be expected or actually achieved for each program of study.  An exact analysis cannot be carried out, for we would again be resorting to a purely quantitative measurement, not taking account that a qualitative perspective should be used to understand qualitative measurement.  That is, we use the scale of quality as a conceptual apparatus with the ability to perceive, resulting in a kind-of 'oracle' that gives feedback like a divination tool.  This tool is then used to see clearly what are the biggest detriments and problems that should be corrected with the current system of education.

We will see that one powerful way to bring balance back into the education system is to use a particular way of teaching geometry.  It is done first through the study of the numerics and geometry of sacred art and architecture, strongly emphasizing the relationships between Mind and Feelings through symbolic interaction at an experiential level.  The link between Feelings and Body is firmly established through the mathematics of music and the experience of tone, as well as artistic construction of geometric shapes, models, and diagrams.

But why should this be done at all?  In the old days, employers need to have workers who are within their system, it would be dangerous if their own employees could figure out their systems.  There was the possibility that the employees could outsmart the employers.  The future of business is decentralizing power from the actual employers and giving it to the systems that drive innovation themselves.  If companies would realize how to harness their employees creativity, which is best cultivated through a fine-tuned balanced human abilities .  They would become more than employers, because they are then part of the systems that drive innovation.  If understood this way, successful companies would most value an education showing qualitative balance of Mind - Feelings - Body integrated with individual strengths.

I will show in forthcoming posts how to design a mathematics cirriculum that can strongly balance the triad of Mind - Feelings - Body.  Once understood, we will see the profound way this can empower the individual to contribute their unique value to the world.