Posted on 06/14/2010 6:34:43 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
A chart in last Sunday's New York Post revealed that only 35% of Americans could name even one member of the U.S. Supreme Court, and only 1% could name all nine members. That night Baby Stewie on Fox's The Family Guy admonished viewers who in a mock poll failed to attribute a famous quote to Henry David Thoreau.
Though Family Guy is merely a silly, often crude cartoon, Stewie's point about the clueless nature of most Americans, and his view that this speaks to our decline relative to other nations is a popular one, particularly among the political elite. For the left, American density when it comes to scholarly knowledge is a call for more spending on schools, while the right regularly seeks vouchers and education tax credits (so much for tax simplification!) in order to fix "schools that don't teach."
Both sides of the political spectrum believe that American frailty in the classroom foretells our economic doom relative to other nations where students perform much better. Unless we improve our schools, we'll soon fall behind countries that we're "competing" with economically.
Of course, there is enormous value in knowing how to add and subtract and pen a coherent sentence, but the education argument as it pertains to our economic health is completely divorced from reality. To see why, we need only consider the educational exploits of some of our country's greatest business successes.
(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...
* Apple Computer ( AAPL - news - people ) billionaire Steve Jobs was an indifferent student at Reed College for a semester before dropping out.
* Larry Ellison left the University of Illinois after his second year and later founded Database giant -- ORACLE.
* Hollywood moguls Barry Diller and David Geffen dropped out of UCLA and the University of Texas, respectively.
* Microsoft's ( MSFT - news - people ) Bill Gates and Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg never completed their studies at Harvard.
* In his new book Delivering Happiness, LinkExchange and Zappos.com (sold for $265 million and $1.2 billion, respectively) founder John Hsieh writes that during his time at Harvard he did as little schoolwork as possible. The logical response to the success of individuals listed here is that so high are they on the intelligence scale, traditional schooling likely wouldn't matter to them only.
College—be it Stanford or South Carolina State—merely educates us about the past. If our professors really had a hotline to the future of commerce, it’s a fair bet they wouldn’t be toiling for a professor’s salary on campus.
Technology eminence Guy Kawasaki long ago noted in Forbes that M.B.A. degrees, at least at Silicon Valley firms, worked against applicants. Kawasaki’s assertion may have been a bit overdone, but at the same time, can those of us with M.B.A.s really say that our classes in entrepreneurialism, operations and finance really meant a whole lot to our future success?
None of the Bloods went to college.
They are thriving criminals
No but education creates huge government deficits and income redistribution. This is the new ‘right’ to a service we have by Democrats and many Republicans, which means another set of servants become our masters.
A few thoughts:
Education is important only to the degree that you use it. Some of us (myself) have chosen to get a higher education, both for the “foot in the door” benefits and personal satisfaction - but - you still have to distinguish yourself to benefit.
Furthermore, the education problems we have in the US is due to ingrained cultural blocks to getting an education, that it’s “not cool” to do well in school.
I think all of Obama’s cabinet members and friends ( e.g. Professor Bill Ayers ) have college degrees.
The Upper Management of Fannie and Freddie are college grads as well ( mostly from Ivy Leagues ).
The author confuses education with “schooling”. Government k-12 schools are impediments to education, as are parts of most universities.
Are you saying my “Women’s Studies” degree was a waste of time?
Back in the day “Women’s Studies” meant a tall stack of Playboys.
“Insert your perpetually aggrieved group here” studies degrees do nothing but
garner the approval of your peers, who are also members of “insert your perpetually aggrieved group here”.
Personally, I never let my schooling interfere with my education.
I would add, school attendance does not guarantee an education.
on the democrat plantation
obamatuers are trained in “alienation” and “radicalized”
and dumbed-down like all folks inner city high screwls.
look at cindy mccain and barbara bush, both of whom have lofty edjukations.
Not sure I can take credit for it...I think it may be a Will Rogers-ism.
But without those classes how am I supposed to learn that I’m oppressed?
Well, now, that kinda gets into a catch-22 situation,
because why would you take a class in perpetually aggrieved studies unless you already know that you’re perpetually aggrieved?
Most have done time in the criminal university systems we call jails. You get classes such as: pimpin’ fo’ cash and economics of drug dealing, not to mention all the networking opportunities...and you get a well stocked law library.
bump
Who said this :
The more you study, the more you know.
The more you know, the more you forget.
The more you forget, the less you know.
So why study? ...
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