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>I'd say that American society ought to take a complete U-turn and start valuing and providing the highest possible quality education to the most and the most q
by lsc 16y ago
>I'd say that American society ought to take a complete U-turn and start valuing and providing the highest possible quality education to the most and the most qualified citizens, not as good sold to people but as an investment in the whole of society since an educated population is a benefit to everyone, not just the educated.
Nearly everyone I know that I would consider 'the best and brightest' got most of the school they wanted paid for through scholarships. Many of them got housing paid for, too. This is even more true of grad school; it's often said that if you have to pay for your own grad school, you probably don't belong there, but there are a whole lot of programs for qualified people in undergrad, too.
And really, I think if we're talking about 'the good of society' we need to look real hard at what sort of degrees we are paying for.
I'm not one of the "best and the brightest" - I'm not claiming to be some sort of 'john galt' figure, carrying the world on my back, hell, I don't even know if I'm a net positive. but I think I've made some small contributions. Some people, I think, create real value services I provide, services that are quite a lot cheaper than the competition. And the book I wrote, while it's not the best book in the world, is the most up-to-date book on the subject. I mean, I haven't sold that many copies, but we're most of the way through the first printing... it's something.
If after highschool someone told me "Hey, go to school... we'll cover housing, tuition, books, everything" I'd have gone to school and studied history. If I did that, do you think I would have contributed back more or less? Maybe I would have written a book then, too... sort of a "war nerd, only without the wit" or something. I dono. Maybe I would have done something good and important that was enabled by the degree... but my guess is that I wouldn't.
I mean, what actually happened was that my parents said they'd try to help, but I'd have to work to cover a large part of it, and it'd be a hard slog through community college, then through a UC. This was 1997-1998, so obviously, there were huge opportunities available for the taking. Now, you can argue that maybe I should have gone back to school in 2002, but while the boom lasted, working was unquestionably the best decision.
- joe_the_user 16y agoI said "to the most and the most qualified citizens"... Perhaps America is doing great for the most qualified. But the education its providing for a wide range of average seems seriously problematic. Also, this country need to provide high quality education - currently, it's mostly providing "high quantity" education. IE, yes perhaps an excess of history PhDs might not be a useful thing to produce. But a base-line knowledge, of say, history, economics, mathematics or etc. among a large percentage of the population is a crucial good - for society, for me. I want an informed electorate, I want a population less likely to fall for bogus scams, I want "line workers" qualified to step into other positions, etc...
- lsc 16y ago> this country need to provide high quality education - currently, it's mostly providing "high quantity" education. how do you propose to raise the quality while also raising the quantity? Right now, it seems, the major differentiators between the 'quality' schools and the not-so-good schools is exclusivity. If you go to a top school, you can be assured that nearly all your peers passed through a very stringent filter, and the same with your lecturers. (though, my understanding is that you are unlikely to actually have much two-way interaction with your lecturer.) If you get into a top school, you know that if you screw off too much, they kick you out. We already have a system of 'community colleges' that will let anyone in and are almost free. These schools are judged "not very good" not really because of the quality of their instruction, but because of the lack of a filter. Anyone can pay a couple bucks and show up at a community college. I've taken a few classes myself. The thing is, most people just aren't serious. Take a math class? most of the students will drop out before the class finishes. Community college is full of people like me who put their career ahead of formal education. Yeah, you could change that a little by providing reduced-cost housing, but I think you'd still have a whole lot of people who just aren't that serious, or who see better opportunities elsewhere.