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As kenjackson notes below, college-age students typically have everything figured out. As a sort of hangover from the teenage years, the world is astonishingly
by yid 15y ago
As kenjackson notes below, college-age students typically have everything figured out. As a sort of hangover from the teenage years, the world is astonishingly simple (the story of Asteroid Boy comes to mind) and traditional institutions are worthless. As a "smart" kid, I suffered from this myself.
The problem with the UnCollege movement is that it might disqualify a lot of smart students from graduate study, which IMO is where the teenage hubris starts melting away. Spend a few years in a PhD program, and even if you don't finish, you'll realize that the world is a lot more complicated than you imagined, and there is a lot of advanced knowledge out there that requires a period of dedicated study with a mentor. You might not need graduate school for it, but it's a structured environment for those who aren't fortunate enough to be adopted by a VC.
- markbao 15y agoI would agree, but I think we are all on the same page on this subject (with Dale, that is). At least, he touches on the fact that students on the med track shouldn't really take the UnCollege route since there is intrinsic knowledge you pretty much need to be an active participant in the medical community in whatever capacity. (Around the end of the article.) But yes, if you're saying that doing more education opens you up to more than just knowledge, but a realization that stuff is really a lot harder than you thought, definitely ++ on that. Of course, there are things which are better suited for jumping right in—I'm thinking areas of work where experience can teach more than learning, like startups. But I'm biased. In any case, I think with every article that's sensationalized like this, we can all agree that the headline sucks.