Profscam: From the Experts at Advanced Vivarium Systems

by Charles J. Sykes

Book Overview

ProfScam reveals the direct and ultimate reason for the collapse of higher education in the Unites States the selfish, wayward, and corrupt American university professor." This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0895265591
• ISBN13: 9780895265593
• Release Date: October 1988
• Publisher: Regnery Publishing
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 1.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.3" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

The Best Book on Higher Education. Truth at Last.....

Charles Sykes tells the truth in book on education. A great book with great facts and argument. The term "higher education" is a term of arrogance, fraud, nonsense, and sham. Education is Educaiton. Education has been part of humanity since the beginning. The forms it has taken has changed from single schoolhouse to the Univ. of Texas with 52,000 students on a single campus. In the year 1900, only two percent of U.S. population attended college, but in 2004, the State of California through its 3-tier system guarantees 100% of 18 year old can attend college. The University of California, California State University, California Community Colleges. The UC, CSU, CCC guarantees 100% 18, 19, year olds can attend. Of Course, what this has meant is an entire industry, jobs, money, perks, privileges and of course waste. The kingpin of the academic world is the tenured professor. Professor teach two classes a semester, two semester out of the year, 8 months. Basically 6 hours in the classroom, 8 months out of the year. The rest of the time, they are pursuing so-called "research" This is "lunatics running the asylum", a blank, open check for professor to do anything they want. However, the world Charles Sykes describes in the book is coming to an end. MIT is posting 2000 classes for free on the Internet. The computer, Internet has rendered "soft" subjects like history, philosophy, and literature obsolete because all of it will be posted free on the Internet. The only subjects worth studying will be technical, engineering, science, medicine subjects. All the soft subjects will be obsolete by the Information Age.Charles Syke's book is a must read. The college's professors are overpaid, under worked, arrogant, out to lunch, and beyond the normal rules that govern the rest of us. Profscam, is a snapshot in time, with computers now $200- $400 now, the world of knowledge is now at your fingertip, the old colleges will shrink in size. Great book, Charles Sykes, tells the Truth, Truth, Truth on higher education.This is a great, great book, must buy and must read for all.

Too true

Another customer reviewer (Allan Bloom --NOT the author of the "Closing of the American Mind," but someone with the same name) attempts to debunk Sykes's book by a quibble over a date in a footnote.Sorry, prof, but such a minor mistake in no way vitiates Sykes's argument.Was, as Sykes states, the sole textbook for your class the "Rolling Stone Book of Rock Video"? Did your students get credit for acting as extras in rock videos? Did your class "analyze videotapes of Weird Al Yankovic singing 'Dare to Be Stupid?'" If so, case closed, Sykes wins.

This is the best book written on higher education.

Martin Anderson's, "Imposters in the Temple" is another one.The people who have slamed this aren't being objective, orhaven't sat through 40 classes at their Institutions like the undergraduates do. I suggest they take a few of the extra hours they don't work and sit through a bunch of classes. But they won't because they have tenure and don't really have to care. Real scholars will come away aghast at what they see, but will have no power to change anything. Syckes has called it like it is. These books are the most accurate and honest description ofwhat my undergraduate experience was like. They are also quiteapplicable to what I experienced ten years later in graduate school, which was quite recent. Nothing has changed folks. And nothing will change, untill you get involved.Check out ProfessorWatch.com . This web site claims it was inspired by these books, and they've developed a workable plan to change all this degeneracy.

Its' true: Just ask your neighbor's sons and daughters

This book is excellent. Just cross reference Loren Pope's two books--"Colleges that change lives", "Beyond Ivy League" and you'll see that this books is right on the mark. The negative reviews for this book from the professors are not objective.You need to check with college students and graduates to get objective viewpoints. I checked with many of my friends' sons and daughers who are or were in college. Most of them said that in 4 year colleges their are or were taught by TAs during the first two years (freshman and sophomore) of their college education.I have a friend who is a high power research professor. He distains undergraduates.Also, MIT has started a program to have college seniors teach college freshman. This is even worse than having TAs teaching freshman and sophomore.This book is a must read for all parents and college-bound students. Don't be lured by college rankings--they don't tell you if professors teach undergraduate and how many of they do. Don't rely on your high school counselors. Do your own research. Your children are diamonds. You want colleges that will do the polishing work, not just admiring the diamonds or worse yet, letting the diamonds collect dust.

Thumbs up

The author is opinionated, for sure. And not every professor nor university is guilty of the sins mentioned. But a lot of them are, and people in general are so worshipful of academia, that what is said in this book is almost never said. So it is refreshing to see someone actually say, "Look! The emperor is wearing no clothes!"