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The best thing I got out of university was exposure to political discourse. I also took some geography classes in addition to my engineering classes which were

by dools 11y ago

The best thing I got out of university was exposure to political discourse. I also took some geography classes in addition to my engineering classes which were eye opening and set me on a path to having a hobby level interest in history. The focus is always on economic benefits to society of higher education in the short term: jobs and skills and such. More important is that people who are more educated will make better democratic participants, which will benefit society generally (but perhaps not the same people who are aiming to benefit from skilled workers ... )

twblalock 11y ago
If everyone in a democratic society would benefit from this, it ought to be part of the compulsory education that everyone receives as a teenager. Plus, if we had better junior high and high school educations in this country, we could cut out a lot of the general education requirements in colleges and graduate in 3 years instead of 4. With today's tuition rates, a 3-year degree could represent a substantial amount of money saved for the average student.
- mjevans 11y ago
  As I recall from my time in public schooling institutions, the presence of students that really didn't want to be there taught me mostly two things. 1) 'Respect my authoritah' (from (some) of those running the place, but enough that it was learned) 2) What I imagine (and thankfully have never verified!) are the skills necessary to survive in jail. Everything else I learned by reading ahead in the books, or from science programming before those television channels became infected with reality TV nonsense.
- Lawtonfogle 11y ago
  >it ought to be part of the compulsory education that everyone receives as a teenager. There is so much material I would like to add. A better course in our modern day political system (with sub sections for specialized local government). Financial info. Enough psychology to understand how people are manipulated. A basic course in contract law. A course in one's rights. And a good statistic course that goes over basic human errors when dealing with stats.

by dools 11y ago

twblalock 11y ago

If everyone in a democratic society would benefit from this, it ought to be part of the compulsory education that everyone receives as a teenager. Plus, if we had better junior high and high school educations in this country, we could cut out a lot of the general education requirements in colleges and graduate in 3 years instead of 4. With today's tuition rates, a 3-year degree could represent a substantial amount of money saved for the average student.

mjevans 11y ago
As I recall from my time in public schooling institutions, the presence of students that really didn't want to be there taught me mostly two things. 1) 'Respect my authoritah' (from (some) of those running the place, but enough that it was learned) 2) What I imagine (and thankfully have never verified!) are the skills necessary to survive in jail. Everything else I learned by reading ahead in the books, or from science programming before those television channels became infected with reality TV nonsense.
Lawtonfogle 11y ago
>it ought to be part of the compulsory education that everyone receives as a teenager. There is so much material I would like to add. A better course in our modern day political system (with sub sections for specialized local government). Financial info. Enough psychology to understand how people are manipulated. A basic course in contract law. A course in one's rights. And a good statistic course that goes over basic human errors when dealing with stats.