Posted on 03/16/2010 11:29:37 AM PDT by KippLanham
Americans have been so busy fighting against President Obama’s great, Red Army-type offensives on health care “reform,” the federalization of big chunks of the economy, and spending that will bury us under an avalanche of debt that his educational plans have drawn relatively little attention. Since higher education is my main policy domain, I have been watching that front.
Read more: http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/do-we-need-%E2%80%94-or-want-%E2%80%94-more-students-in-college/
(Excerpt) Read more at pajamasmedia.com ...
I wonder if the internet won’t render colleges and universities obsolete (at least in their present form).
Having 200 million people with Liberal Arts degrees who think that Karl Marx was the best president this country ever had, is really not going to help us.
I’ve known people who had to go back for a second or even third college degree before finding one that actually helped them get a job. I think what we need is more students in trade schools or apprenticeship programs.
They hide out in college to learn how to avoid doing REAL work, where you get your hands dirty making/doing useful things.
Certainly one of the boat anchors on a recovery is the individual debt loads on college loans. I’m not arguing either way on a college degree but:
Who would even think of starting a business with student loan payments hanging over their head?
How many first time home buyers are not in the market for a house because they have student loans hanging over their head.
There is a serious sense among college students that they are entitled to have great careers the minute that they graduate just because they put in time and took out hundreds of dollars in debt.
Try explaining to one of them what an “entry level position” is and watch them snicker and laugh.
Unless you are majoring in science or engineering. Only a small percentage of law students, for instance, ever actually practice law.
I like your thinking.
The internet will burst the college bubble at some point. Employers could set up cubes with remote learning computers and hire student/employees that work 30 hours, study 30 hours/week, requiring a strict schedule. After 8 years they have a job, degree, and no student loan. The employers get employees that have well suited job skills and known work habits rather than druggies with degrees in liberal ideology.
Possible post of the day!
I had a buddy that studied engineering in college and, under a co-op program, worked every other semester at NASA. Not only did he have a great time and learned a tremendous amount (both academically and practically) but he paid his way through college.
Furthermore, the internet makes it possible to do what you were recommending instead of having to go back to campus.
And given that the pace of change is so much greater now, it will soon be necessary for education to extend over the entirety of one's life.
if college is the answer, i would hate to know what the question was.
I’m a big proponent of higher education but, let’s be frank, not everyone is cut out for a college degree. In addition, with so many junk courses in college today (to keep bored professors busy), many degrees are simply pointless.
How many of us have ever consulted a Women’s Studies graduate? Or a Sex in American Society major?
Until colleges return to the serious business of preparing young men and women for careers in engineering, architecture, science, math, Humanities, etc., and abandon the junk studies courses, college degrees continue to be devalued. In addition, as standards are repeatedly lowered at all levels of the education profession, each degree conferred carries less meaning than those conferred 30 and 40 years ago.
NO! We need people who can actually work! All this college edumacation is over-rated.
What is the purpose of a college education? If it is to prepare someone for a job, there may be some use for them; however, the majority of majors and minors will not prepare anyone for a job other than something to do with teaching in college. If the purpose of a college education is to teach people to think critically, the universities have been a total failure. The university does not teach or encourage critical thinking. It is more about teaching sensitivity training and political correctness than critical thinking. Unless someone is going to study engineering, medicine, law, or scientific research, it would be better for him to attend a vocational school and learn a trade.
Possibly. The cost structure of colleges & universities has gotten way out of line. As Al Gore would say, "it's not sustainable."
My point mainly was to not go into debt for a degree.
One of the smartest, best engineers I know started off with an Associates degree in physics from a community college. He got straight As there, of course, and when he got to the school of mines he was light-years ahead of the other undergraduates.
There is nothing special about an accounting degree. It doesn't matter that much where you get it. If you're going to get one, you should look into the requirements for a CPA certificate in your state. They may just require a bachelor in accounting with a minimum number of accounting hours, in which case you should go for it. A CPA certificate is as good as an MBA once you are in a field, possibly even better.
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