Posted on 05/09/2010 5:04:41 AM PDT by reaganaut1
The Great Depression did not have too many silver linings, but it did change the way Americans thought about education, clearly for the better. In 1930, only 30 percent of teenagers graduated from high school. By 1940, after a decade in which there often was nothing better to do than stay in school, the number had jumped to 50 percent. The Depression didn’t just make Americans tougher. It made them smarter.
In the years that followed, these newly skilled workers helped create an economic colossus. They were the factory workers, office clerks and managers who built up General Motors, U.S. Steel, R.C.A. and I.B.M. So when our own Great Recession began more than two years ago, it was reasonable to hope that something similar, if less extreme, might take place.
In a historical echo, the share of young adults in recent years who graduated from college happened to be about 30 percent. By any serious reckoning, that number was too low. The gap between the pay of college graduates and everyone else has grown sharply over the last three decades, reaching a new all-time high last year, which suggests that workers with a degree are too scarce a resource. There may indeed be a natural ceiling on how many college graduates a society should produce, but the United States does not appear close to it.
A deep recession has the potential to change that. It can keep people in school, or drive them back to school, in two main ways. First, it reduces the opportunity cost — to use the technical term — of attending college. When times are tough, you are less likely to be missing out on a good $20-an-hour job by being in class.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Let the Media know about her!!!
We have our first woman president!!!
Are you sure she was never a community organizer? That's a sure winner.
The universities created this problem themselves (segregated, useless disciplines like Africology, Women’s Studies, etc.) when they refused to honor the spirit of Affirmative Action when it was imposed on colleges receiving federal funding.
The intent was to include minorities in the general hiring pools for all disciplines. Instead, to meet their quotas for minority hiring, they created these grievance departments, which must grow ever more radical to gain attention (i.e. funding) - and minority hiring in real disciplines is still woefully low.
Exactly. Vast numbers of people are graduating from colleges each year. In the past, due to the natural attrition of retirement and a growing economy, there would be room made for them to join the work force. Now the economy is shrinking and people aren't retiring.
The American people are one of the smartest populations in the world.
The myth that the people of the USA are “stupid”, “sheep” “dumb” etc is a socialist myth expanded by them to justify their massive intervention in people's personal lives.
They know “better” they are the “smart ones” we “need” them to manage the “stupid” people.
This is how the schools justify the attack on parents rights, how the government justifies its takeover of our freedoms.
To see the majority of posters on a site like Free Republic not only embrace the myth but expand on it is music to the socialist's ears.
The American people are not stupid, they do not need a sugar daddy to take care of them. A college grad no matter what the major he/she takes is smart enough to mange their own lives. A high school grad from American schools is smarter than the majority of the world population.
Yes there is indoctrination and yes their is some stupid people in any population but using one or two anecdotal examples to paint a broad brush for the entire population only furthers the myth and allows the socialist takeover of this country to continue on pace.
As a college professor, I can tell you that more people going to college is not necessarily a good things. There are many students in college today who clearly do not belong there. Either they are too lazy to do the work or they lack the preparation. I have one General Education class where one of the poorest students in the class told me he was a graduating senior. He wasn’t a major from my Dept, but it shocked me nontheless. Have a BA/BS degree today is probably the equivalent of a HS diploma circa 1950.
And I totally agree; most of America has been dumbed down to the point where higher education is an impossibility for most...all by design, Comrade. All by design. ;)
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
Yes, it IS all by design and the current “higher education” system is a disgrace.
Personally I think our greater need is to return to the school system we had when a high school graduate had a high school education rather than continue to send people to graduate school and hope they have a high school education at the end of it all.
Take a look at the WISC-IV book. That is the most used intelligence test.
Should set him up well for the "Community Organizer" career path... (cough)
I forgot to mention that she’s also bisexual. Add that to the list of her presidential qualifications!
Sometimes I think we need a lot more history majors! If Americans knew more about history they might not be so quick to fall for the leftist line. They would be aware that all these “new ideas” are very old ideas that have been proven wrong time and time again.
Actually I just learned that someone I know casually who is a successful local businessman is...a history major.
Seriously, we need to have history taught in the first twelve years as it used to be. I have yet to meet a recent university graduate, history major or otherwise who knows all the history I learned in public schools. I only remember part of it myself but that is sufficient to surpass the knowledge of history of almost anyone I know who is under forty years of age.
Then there is the matter of knowing how the government is SUPPOSED to work. While still in high school my generation had to learn to write a description of how a bill originated and how it traveled through the house and senate, the process of presidential approval or veto, how a veto could be overridden, and much, much more. We probably knew more about the functioning of congress than most newly elected congressman do now. Most young people now seem to know just about zero concerning that subject.
We also studied the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution from beginning to end. We went over each amendment and discussed what it was intended to accomplish and how it had worked out in practice.
There are some now who say that history is a waste of time, I say look at the condition of this country and realize that the major, some might say the sole cause of this mess is a failure to learn from history.
It is good to have engineers, scientists, physicians but even they need to know the history of the world if they are to be responsible citizens.
I have a test from one hundred years ago to graduate eighth grade— there’s plenty in higher education that could not pass it.
Nobody is saying the people are dumb; more like the education system is dumbed-down and over rated, and or over priced.
I’m saying the opposite of what you think; with the exceptions of the practical degrees there are plenty that are not worth what you get out of it in regards to wages. Also, I believe there’s a lot fluff requirements that can be learned on your own simply by going to the library.
See post 24, you made to clear him up.
Like I told him, I have a test from 100 years ago that was published in a local paper about 6 years ago. The test was to graduate 8th grade.
I couldn’t pass it.
I’m thinking of posting it but I had have to type it word for word.
This has been my whole point. People aren’t getting the returns they normally get in regards to wages in the first place, and now it’s much worse.
"War is Peace," "Freedom is Slavery," "Ignorance is Strength."
Wasn’t that trend going on well before that? Not saying that the Depression didn’t have an effect but perhaps it wasn’t as strong a cause as the author implies.
I think we push too much for college. We don’t need every high schooler to be on a college path. Its wasteful. Many jobs that require college degrees now don’t require college skills so we are wasting time and money in educating as many in college. I support a much stronger push for vocational skills.
Shocking isn’t it? I can tell you she is definitely not alone as this is a common practice among welfare recipients as well. The practice of enrolling for college with enough credits to carry one’s benefit through to the next period to show the gubmint they are trying (and then dropping courses)is a popular one.
It drives me barking mad! Their job is to figure out how to obtain money from the government, but they don’t see it as taking from other people.
Only about 4% of people with average IQ (100)or lower have college degrees
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
I am surprised that it is as high as 4%.
I completely agree.
One of the goals of the communist party was to get control of the schools. And...Yuri Besmenov, the former KGB, spy warned us about the communist goal to DE-moralize our nation.
That we had put in place in the mid-1800s to early 1900s a system of socialist-funded, socialist-modeled, single payer government schools made this infiltration of the schools, its unions, and central planning committees much easier for the communists. It would have been harder if we educated our nation's children in thousands of single and independent private schools.
It seems to me that conservatives will rally themselves to oppose individual legislation or to oppose truly flagrant Democrat politicians and policies. Conservatives though have NO LONG TERM PLAN TO RE-MORALIZE THE NATION.
If our nation is to survive we must shut down the government schools. Government schools are socialism and socialism can not be reformed. Conservatives must find a way to get our nation's kids into private conservative schools.
There’s only one problem with your proposal; that isn’t how history is taught at the high school or college level.
Once upon a time, students learned about American exceptionalism and the genius of the founding fathers; the Constitution and the electoral process. Unfortunately, much of that has been replaced with “history” that treats all ideas (and ideologies) equally, while downplaying, ignoring or heavily criticizing the contributions of our founders, and the Judeo-Christian priciples that guided them.
If you want an example of how American history has been altered and twisted by political correctness, look at the treatment given to George Washington in any textbook. Then, compare that to the new Washington biography (discussed on Glenn Beck’s program on Friday), or if you prefer, Douglas S. Freeman’s definitive, multi-volume study of our first commander-in-chief. You’ll quickly discover that today’s history courses are nothing but exercises in P.C.
I’m all in favor of history being taught in our schools. But to do a proper job of it, we need a new generation of historians and scholars, who (in turn) would train the history teachers. Unfortunately, both the academy and the public schools have been consumed by political correctness and liberalism. These days, about the only young people who learn “real” American history are the home schoolers and kids fortunate enough to attend a college like Hillsdale.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.