Posted on 06/22/2014 9:58:35 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Many schools are fielding highly profitable semi-professional sports franchises and then sending significant amounts of money and support to Democrats and other liberal candidates.
The bigger question is, “What does our society value?”
today’s society values the trivial and the perverse and the unreal
There are plenty of jobs that do not require a full four year college degree. Many of these can be obtained through certification programs at the local junior college or other training programs. Unless the hard sciences of math, physics, chemistry, or engineering are your strong point, don’t consider college. The social science courses in college are expensive fluff that lead nowhere.
90% of the college industry exists to provide employment unemployable American hating leftists. If it weren’t for colleges what would people like Noam Chomsky and Bill Ayers be doing?
Oh, BS! These are complicated subjects to almost everyone--yourself excepted, of course--and cannot be readily understood by going to the library or "taking a few classes."
It seems that almost every FReeper sees higher education as job training. Yours therefore is a common and never-ending theme here.
I do not disagree that the current higher education establishment is dominated by leftist professors intent on indoctrinating students to their causes. But it did not have to be that way. Back in the mists of time one did not have a clue as to the political leanings of the professor and instead, got taught the subject matter. But that is indeed a different matter from the one at hand, i.e., can one become educated on his own? I don't think so.
You wouldn't understand the essence of higher education if it came up and slapped you in the face. You want job training and that only. Fine, set up institutes of engineering and other "technical studies" but don't call it higher education.
I actually have a dual undergraduate degree in English and philosophy, play three instruments and have won art contests.
But I took further training in order to actually make a living, as did several of my friends who pursued the same sorts of degrees.
Yes, one should read literature, learn about art and study a musical instrument, but do not expect to make much of a living with any of that, and do not pile up hundreds and thousands of dollars of debt in order to study them.
One of my points was that one cannot obtain what I think of as higher education by your means, i.e., going to the library and taking a few courses.
The other point I was trying to make is this: while, in general, “liberal arts” degrees (with many exceptions—lots of highly-paid people on Wall Street, I understand, have them) do not have much value in today’s job market, that does not argue against people wishing to go to college to get a true education—not job training. I, too, don’t think it’s a good idea to pile up thousands of dollars in debt to do that, though.
BTW, it’s truly an “academic matter” for me since I have long ago retired, having missed all this. Lucky me.
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