4 ms·

"It all seems like a giant plan to prevent people from starting their adult lives. If you need to just get some generic "good job", then the answer is to learn

"It all seems like a giant plan to prevent people from starting their adult lives. If you need to just get some generic "good job", then the answer is to learn what you need in the first twelve years of school. I think that's enough time." Some guy on the internet said 12 years is enough to get a good job so I guess its true? A number other than 12, the product of history and chance, must be a sinister plan to uh extend childhood indefinitely by some cabal for some mysterious reason. (Full disclosure, I went to school till I was 28. It fucking ruled and I think everyone should do it if they want to).

peterlk 7y ago
I don't think that your response is in good faith. Not everyone wants to spend a third of their life in school. And I have proof that it is not necessary in all cases by the existence of at least one counterexample: I have a friend who did not receive a college degree. He is now a professional fabricator, and a better mechanical engineer than most of the mechanical engineers I went to school with
- vincent-toups 7y ago
  I wasn't saying _everyone_ needs to have a greater than 12 year education. I was pointing out that 12 years is an arbitrary number to place so much faith in. It was formalized in an entirely different historical moment.
ocschwar 7y ago
> (Full disclosure, I went to school till I was 28. It fucking ruled and I think everyone should do it if they want to). If they want to, sure. Hurrah for education-for-its-own-sake.
jeffdavis 7y ago
If 20+ years of school is what you want, go for it. But a lot of people want to move on sooner, and so we should use the first 12 years of education efficiently. High schools don't get to just pass the buck onto the college system for all the kids that they failed to educate. And students who don't use their HS opportunities well shouldn't have the excuse that they will just get a HS do-over in college (at taxpayer expense).

peterlk 7y ago

I don't think that your response is in good faith. Not everyone wants to spend a third of their life in school. And I have proof that it is not necessary in all cases by the existence of at least one counterexample: I have a friend who did not receive a college degree. He is now a professional fabricator, and a better mechanical engineer than most of the mechanical engineers I went to school with

vincent-toups 7y ago
I wasn't saying _everyone_ needs to have a greater than 12 year education. I was pointing out that 12 years is an arbitrary number to place so much faith in. It was formalized in an entirely different historical moment.

ocschwar 7y ago

> (Full disclosure, I went to school till I was 28. It fucking ruled and I think everyone should do it if they want to). If they want to, sure. Hurrah for education-for-its-own-sake.

jeffdavis 7y ago

If 20+ years of school is what you want, go for it. But a lot of people want to move on sooner, and so we should use the first 12 years of education efficiently. High schools don't get to just pass the buck onto the college system for all the kids that they failed to educate. And students who don't use their HS opportunities well shouldn't have the excuse that they will just get a HS do-over in college (at taxpayer expense).