Posted on 03/30/2014 6:42:52 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
“We need more on-the-job training. We need more apprenticeships. We need more respect for craftsmanship.”
I agree 100%. IMHO, one of the best things we could do in our high schools is to create partnerships with local businesses for apprenticeship programs (maybe some schools already do, but the ones near me sure don’t). Not just for trades, but clerical work, and maybe certain professional careers like web design. Give the student a chance to learn the ropes of chosen field, and teach them some real-world responsibility in the process.
“The author is a bit of a hypocrite for not crediting his college education with being able to think critically and write well.”
So, you think that he learned that in college...I’ll bet that he was essentially that capable in high school.
The most important things that I learned in college were only indirectly related to the classes.
The University system is pretty amazing. Can you name another business model that involves requiring years from the customer’s life and maybe 100’s of thousands of his dollars and the FIRST thing you tell him is:
“You are an imperialist, a potential rapist, and we advise you to kill your parents.”
Ever hear a car-rental agency tell that to folks walking through the door? How about a steak house? WalMart?
But it’s quite common not only for Universities to do that but in the process they consider themselves highly dignified for it.
OK well lessay your customer puts up with all that for 4 years and he defaults on his debt —he can screw you by going bankrupt, right?
NOPE!
Student debt is not dischargeable via bankrupty, and many since many colleges OWN the collection agency charged with hounding you FOREVER in fact they often HOPE you default.
They are granted levels of consideration far and above those accorded to the businesses they accuse of greed and exploitation of others.
Not a bad idea but let me inject a little bit of reality that makes any engineering program a challenge as a part-time adult student. At a minimum, you have to go into it knowing the choices to be made to successfully complete the program.
The biggest hurdle occurs in the senior year and is known as the senior capstone project. This is at least a one-semester undertaking, sometimes two semesters. The student project groups work with people in industry on real projects that require real solutions. This means you will have to attend meetings and conduct project work on regular business hours. This can be a hurdle for students that have daytime jobs while attending evening classes. Thus, the need to be aware of choices that students will have to make to succeed in the program. It’s not impossible for a focused and dedicated student but they should go into the process with their eyes open.
The UK has a “gap year” program, when students take the year to work in the real world or volunteer, or generally to use their time as other than a student and to mature. We might think of having something like that here. Too many go to college because it’s expected and what their friends are doing.
Mike Rowe’s efforts to promote the skilled trades, where you learn a valuable skill in six months to two years, is admirable. It is also a better option for millions of young adults over trying and failing college level work.
Oh, sure, it’s possible that he could have picked those skills up outside college. I’ve seen those people, few, to be sure, but they’re around.
BTW, what years were you in college?
I agree that there would come a time in most programs where you would have to take a semester or nine months off work entirely and tackle the toughest portion of your degree program.
I think that would also allow you to orient your major final courses toward your particular expected final field of employment and expertise.. Central Plant, power generation, process plant work, new commercial construction and the whole variety would be laid out for your choice.
I have had some fine young engineers that went right into construction with good success — but I am focused on the issue of debt and making an opportunity to have what ever you learn in underclassman courses directly apply.
Then sometime in the nineties it became a substitute for independent adulthood and the waning expectation of making one's own way. Now it is baby sitting, unless you choose a course of study which will prepare marketable skills.
The fact that 30% of adults still live with mommy and daddy is a compelling statement on the decline of the culture at large. Italy, here we come.
I imagine if one majors in one of those applied science majors, like engineering, obtaining a college degree is well worth the trouble.
Money racket. Living near one of the biggest colleges in the nation “Penn State” I see that most of those going to college there are in debt for years. Lots of them have degrees but are not working in that field. We need more reality in this system. This campus is under the microscope with what has happened with its liberal agenda. Under Spanier it went deep end with its advancement of promoting the agendas that have nothing to do with education. Being that of pushing the alternative life styles and we all know what happened with the Sandusky crap. It was all done while preaching how great it was to have sexual freedoms and rights to entertain them, Like Sex Fair, C*nt fest and promoting Homosexuality. Twisting the minds of the youths while true education took a back seat.
Being an engineer I am in total agreement with you. The roi of a degree like this is incredible.
I preach to my sons that a plumber charges fifty dollars to answer his own phone and a plumbing business is a good way to make a living.
Also electricians, particularly linemen are in great need.
Nothing wrong with a technology skill and the tens of thousands of dollars I spent on my college degree was pretty wasteful and I am even able to get jobs with it.
It used to be that a standard high school diploma meant that you could critically write well. At least well enough to be understood.
“BTW, what years were you in college?”
Well, let’s just say considerably before Womyns’ Studies - schools (at all levels) were considerably more rigorous then.
I would be interested in seeing a study that focused on the earnings of persons that go into a journeyman trade course versus those that go to a standard liberal arts degree. I have a suspicion that the trades actually have a higher earnings over a lifetime. Particularly when the cost of schooling, loans, and lost work opportunities are factored in.
Agreed, according to this article even the degrees with the worst return, still have a decent return.
fl
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