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Time and life end up teaching those things because normal interactions end up teaching those things. This is ascribing four years of interacting with other peo

Time and life end up teaching those things because normal interactions end up teaching those things. This is ascribing four years of interacting with other people to colleges. Four years of work experience in a given job makes someone far more valuable than four years of college preparing to start the same job. College isn't the only place to learn. Art history can be studied as a hobby any time in life. The idea that using four years to learn english 101 while accumulating massive debt instead of focusing on becoming valuable enough to start working in an industry you want is a destructive mentality. If typical college was much cheaper and more focused there might be more validity to it. Four years of working earns money instead of bleeding it. You meet people that actually know how to do the things you want to learn instead of guessing at them.

kube-system 6y ago
Vocational schools already exist, if students want to attend one, they already can. Liberal arts schools are very intentionally not that. It is certainly possible to learn broad range of subjects outside of a structured environment, but it is improbable, which is why we value structured educations.
- CyberDildonics 6y ago
  The idea that it is learning outside a structured environment is "improbable" is part of the problem. Most college isn't very structured in the first place. I think it is a problem with expectations. Kids seem to take on massive debt, then wonder why the job they get after spending four years at a school taking lots of classes that have nothing to do with the skills they need doesn't pay well enough to make their debt seem worthwhile. The truth is that lots of kids are pushed into a path that wastes a huge amount of their time, energy and money, because what they need to actually become valuable is going to happen after they graduate.
  - kube-system 6y ago
    I agree, that expectation is absolutely the problem. A liberal arts education is not and has never been intended to be a job-training program. The trope that kids should "go to college so they can get a job" has elements of truth but is wildly misleading when most interpret it to be a causal relationship. I don't blame post-secondary academics for this -- this is mostly a cultural problem. The last couple generations have been raised with a cultural expectation that 'success' equals 'college-bound', and secondary school advisors are not willing to rock the boat by suggesting anything otherwise.

kube-system 6y ago

Vocational schools already exist, if students want to attend one, they already can. Liberal arts schools are very intentionally not that. It is certainly possible to learn broad range of subjects outside of a structured environment, but it is improbable, which is why we value structured educations.

CyberDildonics 6y ago
The idea that it is learning outside a structured environment is "improbable" is part of the problem. Most college isn't very structured in the first place. I think it is a problem with expectations. Kids seem to take on massive debt, then wonder why the job they get after spending four years at a school taking lots of classes that have nothing to do with the skills they need doesn't pay well enough to make their debt seem worthwhile. The truth is that lots of kids are pushed into a path that wastes a huge amount of their time, energy and money, because what they need to actually become valuable is going to happen after they graduate.
- kube-system 6y ago
  I agree, that expectation is absolutely the problem. A liberal arts education is not and has never been intended to be a job-training program. The trope that kids should "go to college so they can get a job" has elements of truth but is wildly misleading when most interpret it to be a causal relationship. I don't blame post-secondary academics for this -- this is mostly a cultural problem. The last couple generations have been raised with a cultural expectation that 'success' equals 'college-bound', and secondary school advisors are not willing to rock the boat by suggesting anything otherwise.