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"Yes. I'll also add the 4-year education is incredibly inefficient, in terms of skills added over time" I'm uncomfortable with the idea that a university degre
by termain 11y ago
"Yes. I'll also add the 4-year education is incredibly inefficient, in terms of skills added over time"
I'm uncomfortable with the idea that a university degree is entirely about workforce skills.
- tptacek 11y agoIt isn't. That's the problem.
- termain 11y agoIn the context that it's required to get certain jobs? So we -- society -- have screwed up in conflating education and job training?
- tptacek 11y agoYes, we have.
- aidenn0 11y agoOne conversation I had with a senior employee at a very large company said that university was very important for signalling. They knew that someone who went to (for example) MIT was admitted to MIT, which indicates a certain amount of raw intelligence. Their legal department would not allow administering any sort of IQ test, so the school one went to was a proxy for IQ.
- notlefthanded 11y agoSome people only need / can afford to acquire said skills, and so aren't a good fit for the college track.
- dikaiosune 11y agoIt shouldn't be, but there are a lot of people who don't give a damn about a liberal education for themselves, and just want a degree to improve employment opportunities. For them, I think it's kind of a sham to say that the only way to get the jobs they want is to sit through lots of non-employment-related material. Would our society be better if more citizens were liberally educated and thusly enriched? Perhaps. But that doesn't invalidate the desire to offer students greater opportunities at lower opportunity cost.
- neuro_imager 11y agoI know I'm at risk of sounding tremendously disparaging but, how critical is it to actually go to college to get a liberal arts education? Can most of these aspects of a "more well-rounded education" not come from reading, travelling and extra-curricular activities (like music lessons and trips to the theatre)?
- dikaiosune 11y agoI agree completely, and that is my approach. But not everyone agrees. I would prefer to study history, philosophy and literature because I enjoy them, not for class. On the other hand, not everyone who would be interested in those things would do that without some place to make it official, so I still see a reason for schools that make it their focus to exist. However trying to improve the populace through underfunded, half baked, required courses taught by rote memorization specialists... I don't really agree with that since most students are just there for "job skills" anyway.
- Riseed 11y agoMany pieces of education, both the purely educational bits and the well-rounded bits, can come from experience and other sources. A degree often operates as a third-party certification that an individual has completed these tasks, and/or can stick with something for x years.
- unclebucknasty 11y ago>I'm uncomfortable with the idea that a university degree is entirely about workforce skills. But, It's a rational view. The soaring cost of college is what makes it largely an economic proposition for many these days.
- neuro_imager 11y agoI know I'm at risk of sounding tremendously disparaging but, how critical is it to actually go to college to get a liberal arts education? Can most of these aspects of a "more well-rounded education" not come from reading, travelling and extra-curricular activities (like music lessons and trips to the theatre)?