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Education was once broader than just some kind of ladder that led to a cubicle, it was about creating people with a penchant for lifelong learning, a challenge

by vr46 3y ago

Education was once broader than just some kind of ladder that led to a cubicle, it was about creating people with a penchant for lifelong learning, a challenge that tested people and improved them, a means to share information and discoveries. Bringing money into the contract - for higher education - very much changed that perception and the expectations that students had for it.

torginus 3y ago
I feel like this is one of the things where you can find an ancient Greek philosopher complaining about the same stuff.
jbandela1 3y ago
> Education was once broader than just some kind of ladder that led to a cubicle, it was about creating people with a penchant for lifelong learning, a challenge that tested people and improved them, a means to share information and discoveries. Yes. However, when it was like that, college was pretty much the domain of the wealthy. If your family was already wealthy, there was really no need for college to provide skills for a job. In addition, when it was like that, the assumption was that high school would provide the needed job skills, and there was also a very robust apprenticeship system. A person with a high school degree could support a family and own a home. Theology and medicine were basically the only careers other than academia that required college. Even for law, you could apprentice under a lawyer and sit for the boards without law school. Once college became a universal expectation and was supported by taxes (via government backed loans, GI Bill, etc), it became far more oriented to a jobs ladder.
snakeyjake 3y ago
>Education was once broader than just some kind of ladder that led to a cubicle, it was about creating people with a penchant for lifelong learning, Education was never about this and I don't know where that myth came from. The first schools were created to train government bureaucrats and clergy. Then came military officers, medical doctors, and lawyers. At no point in human history has education been about "finding yourself" it's been about training to enter the workforce-- from Plato's Academy (politicians and military leaders) to the University of Bologna (lawyers) to Harvard (clergy) to American GIs using the GI Bill to get vocational training after WWII it's always been about jobs.
- nitwit005 3y ago
  Where the myth comes from is universities, of course.

by vr46 3y ago

torginus 3y ago

I feel like this is one of the things where you can find an ancient Greek philosopher complaining about the same stuff.

jbandela1 3y ago

> Education was once broader than just some kind of ladder that led to a cubicle, it was about creating people with a penchant for lifelong learning, a challenge that tested people and improved them, a means to share information and discoveries. Yes. However, when it was like that, college was pretty much the domain of the wealthy. If your family was already wealthy, there was really no need for college to provide skills for a job. In addition, when it was like that, the assumption was that high school would provide the needed job skills, and there was also a very robust apprenticeship system. A person with a high school degree could support a family and own a home. Theology and medicine were basically the only careers other than academia that required college. Even for law, you could apprentice under a lawyer and sit for the boards without law school. Once college became a universal expectation and was supported by taxes (via government backed loans, GI Bill, etc), it became far more oriented to a jobs ladder.

snakeyjake 3y ago

>Education was once broader than just some kind of ladder that led to a cubicle, it was about creating people with a penchant for lifelong learning, Education was never about this and I don't know where that myth came from. The first schools were created to train government bureaucrats and clergy. Then came military officers, medical doctors, and lawyers. At no point in human history has education been about "finding yourself" it's been about training to enter the workforce-- from Plato's Academy (politicians and military leaders) to the University of Bologna (lawyers) to Harvard (clergy) to American GIs using the GI Bill to get vocational training after WWII it's always been about jobs.

nitwit005 3y ago
Where the myth comes from is universities, of course.