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Do you sincerely think History is a complete waste of time, a useless human endeavor? You see... It would be great if people had better history/sociology knowl

Do you sincerely think History is a complete waste of time, a useless human endeavor? You see... It would be great if people had better history/sociology knowledge, I don't know about you, but I don't want to live in a technocratic dystopia. The fact that these fields are seem as "useless" is a terrible thing.

Dirlewanger 13y ago
No one's picking on history speficially, relax...the bigger point is that in the past decade or so high schools across the US have been needlessly pushing everyone to at least strongly consider college, and many buy into the hype. Why do you think roughly only 30% graduate? Some just are not cut out for that pace.
turnip1979 13y ago
Studying history is not a useless endeavor. Taking a 100K loan to do it is.
Perdition 13y ago
Why do you need to go to university to to improve your knowledge of history or sociology? A degree in history or sociology is seen as useless because it mostly is outside academia. The people who are good in the field will most likely end up on the academic track, and those who aren't will most likely end up in low paying jobs having wasted several years and tens of thousands of dollars. The problem isn't history or sociology degrees, it is people thinking that a degree is a ticket to a good job.
- jrs99 13y ago
  But the guy in the article wants to be a High School teacher. It's not like the guy wants to be some historian at some institution. And a college degree is probably something you really want if you want to become a High School teacher. Is it wrong for him to think that he needs a college degree in order to teach high school? What are his chances of teaching high school WITHOUT a degree?
  - JanezStupar 13y ago
    I think that having college educated historians as high school history teachers is a terrible waste of resources.
    - jrs99 13y ago
      I think that's true for every field. Some people love degrees when they hire though.
    - jerf 13y ago
      Oh, well, good news then, if you actually examine the curriculum requirement for being a history teacher and compare it to getting a degree in straight-up history, you'll see that the teacher is not required to take anywhere near as much, and the teacher will not take the really hard history courses that grade in terms of reams of essay writing. Some teachers take the initiative to double-major of their own free will (respect!), but it is certainly not required. When I was in school I casually assumed that my teachers knew a great deal more about the subjects than what they were teaching; when I got to University and had the opportunity to look at their curricula requirements I learned that was not true, at least not in general.
  - bennyg 13y ago
    Gotta' have a teaching certificate for most public school institutions. Private schools is less formally strict in that sense, but where I'm from they struggle to keep up with the public schools - thus they require teaching certificates too.
  - Perdition 13y ago
    >But the guy in the article wants to be a High School teacher. I already mentioned low-paid jobs. Also, at least here in Australia the only pure degrees that the high-school education system cares about are maths and science, everything else is "generalist" and can be filled by any teacher. In addition, at least here a general degree isn't good enough any more, you either need a teaching degree or a graduate diploma in teaching.
    - 13y ago
- jlockfre 13y ago
  And if they're doing out of a passion for the subject? What then?
  - Perdition 13y ago
    They should be thankful that they are privileged enough to waste the time and the money on a hobby.
Kurtz79 13y ago
Absolutely not, history, literature, sociology, arts are incredibly important. But we live (at least US/Western countries) in a capitalist society, like it or not. This means that the monetary value of your skills is directly linked only to the monetary value they can generate, not other types of value that undoubtedly they have. People choosing to study humanities must be prepared to face a job market where their skills are not in great demand. Then again, money is not everything.

Dirlewanger 13y ago

No one's picking on history speficially, relax...the bigger point is that in the past decade or so high schools across the US have been needlessly pushing everyone to at least strongly consider college, and many buy into the hype. Why do you think roughly only 30% graduate? Some just are not cut out for that pace.

turnip1979 13y ago

Studying history is not a useless endeavor. Taking a 100K loan to do it is.

Perdition 13y ago

Why do you need to go to university to to improve your knowledge of history or sociology? A degree in history or sociology is seen as useless because it mostly is outside academia. The people who are good in the field will most likely end up on the academic track, and those who aren't will most likely end up in low paying jobs having wasted several years and tens of thousands of dollars. The problem isn't history or sociology degrees, it is people thinking that a degree is a ticket to a good job.

jrs99 13y ago
But the guy in the article wants to be a High School teacher. It's not like the guy wants to be some historian at some institution. And a college degree is probably something you really want if you want to become a High School teacher. Is it wrong for him to think that he needs a college degree in order to teach high school? What are his chances of teaching high school WITHOUT a degree?
- JanezStupar 13y ago
  I think that having college educated historians as high school history teachers is a terrible waste of resources.
  - jrs99 13y ago
    I think that's true for every field. Some people love degrees when they hire though.
  - jerf 13y ago
    Oh, well, good news then, if you actually examine the curriculum requirement for being a history teacher and compare it to getting a degree in straight-up history, you'll see that the teacher is not required to take anywhere near as much, and the teacher will not take the really hard history courses that grade in terms of reams of essay writing. Some teachers take the initiative to double-major of their own free will (respect!), but it is certainly not required. When I was in school I casually assumed that my teachers knew a great deal more about the subjects than what they were teaching; when I got to University and had the opportunity to look at their curricula requirements I learned that was not true, at least not in general.
- bennyg 13y ago
  Gotta' have a teaching certificate for most public school institutions. Private schools is less formally strict in that sense, but where I'm from they struggle to keep up with the public schools - thus they require teaching certificates too.
- Perdition 13y ago
  >But the guy in the article wants to be a High School teacher. I already mentioned low-paid jobs. Also, at least here in Australia the only pure degrees that the high-school education system cares about are maths and science, everything else is "generalist" and can be filled by any teacher. In addition, at least here a general degree isn't good enough any more, you either need a teaching degree or a graduate diploma in teaching.
  - 13y ago
jlockfre 13y ago
And if they're doing out of a passion for the subject? What then?
- Perdition 13y ago
  They should be thankful that they are privileged enough to waste the time and the money on a hobby.

Kurtz79 13y ago

Absolutely not, history, literature, sociology, arts are incredibly important. But we live (at least US/Western countries) in a capitalist society, like it or not. This means that the monetary value of your skills is directly linked only to the monetary value they can generate, not other types of value that undoubtedly they have. People choosing to study humanities must be prepared to face a job market where their skills are not in great demand. Then again, money is not everything.