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64 SMT Magazine • September 2016 No one likes to have his or her worldview challenged. This personal interpretation of what our existence is all about and how one should interact with the world we perceive through our senses is shaped through our genes and ex- periences. It develops as a person grows from childhood through adolescence and into adult- hood. Usually, the older a person is, the more entrenched this worldview becomes. We are ex- posed to more and more of the world and em- brace some ideas and discard others. We grav- itate to ideas that support and reinforce our emerging view. Finally, many of us shut down and reject out of hand those ideas that threaten our personal view. This progression holds true for organiza- tions, communities and disciplines as well. It is one of the reasons the academic community is intractable when it comes to recognizing the need for real change in certain areas of study. For many of us the individual path that de- fines this journey begins with our parents. Un- fortunately, for others it begins with Pokémon Go—and stays with video games and smart phone apps. For many, Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs should be modified; the need for self and instant gratification feeding a narcissistic atti- tude of entitlement should be inserted between the need for breathing, food, water, etc., and security of employment, body, morality, etc. In other words, what becomes of supreme im- portance is access to Grand Theft Auto V, and I'll throw in one's telling the world what they had for breakfast this morning through social media. People preoccupied with these activities be- come ripe for government picking. Remember: bread and circuses! Maybe, things haven't changed so much from the days of the Roman Coliseum! Our species has the unique advantage of storing and sharing information outside of our- selves. This ability permits us to fast-track the journey to worldview as other people's expe- riences are accessible to us through books and other media. The body politic is a metaphor, but the body part is closer to reality than we sometimes real- ize. Taking a short view, the activities each us un- dertake appear as self- contained and random, usually with self-interest as the driving force. If we look at an individual ant in a colony its movements often seem without purpose. As we pull back and look at the same ant in the con- text of the entire colony what emerges is mean- ing and purpose to an individual ant's activity. As David Hofstadter suggests, it is what seems to transform an anthill into Aunt Hillary [5] (no po- litical connection implied). At the primary, secondary and post-second- ary levels, the United States educational system is currently ranked 14th out of the 39 countries in the Global Index of Cognitive skills and at- tainment [6] . What does this mean? The ranking depends on the organization doing the rating and the criteria used in the evaluation. This may have relevance at primary and secondary levels because reading, math and science knowledge are fairly easy to test… but, at a college level? Relegating the goodness of a post-secondary school to a top-40 list is like judging the quali - ty of a new song by the appearance of the artists performing it. What are some of the criteria that go into some typical rating systems? Using the number of books in a campus library as a criterion for rating the school's excellence? The age of the university as a factor in the school's ranking? Are you kidding? The arrogance alone in suggesting that meaningful results can be determined by plug - ging numbers into a model, speaks volumes about the people doing the rating. What a bureaucratic waste of time, resources and money. Predictive evaluations, like those of a new record release, are subjective at best: "It's got a good beat and it's easy to dance to!" The real value of an institution of higher learning is manifested in the results their gradu - ates achieve. These results are a measure of the " For many of us the individual path that defines this journey begins with our parents. " THE CHILD IS FATHER OF THE MAN