Posted on 03/31/2023 6:08:33 AM PDT by karpov
Early in the introductory college economics course, instructors talk about the Law of Diminishing Returns. An illustration: A farmer has a 100-acre field on which he wants to harvest wheat. If he does all the work himself, he can get 5,000 bushels of grain. With a second worker helping him, he can get 8,000 bushels, and with two helpers, 9,000. As more workers are added, output rises, but by sharply diminishing amounts.
Another example: The first ice cream cone a consumer eats adds a lot of pleasure (what economists call “utility”), but if the consumer is forced to eat lots of them, by the sixth or seventh cone the consumer may actually be uncomfortable from consuming too much of a good thing.
Like most things in life, higher education is subject to the Law of Diminishing Returns. Unfortunately, academics often ignore it, which leads to a massive misallocation of resources as government policy pushes us past the point of diminishing returns with college attendance.
Let’s start with the most fundamental question: How long should a student go to college in order to be certified as having “graduated,” or as having had a learning achievement justifying granting a bachelor’s degree? At America’s first university, Harvard, and nearly all others, the answer typically is four years, with a “year” in academia (unlike for the rest of humankind) defined as roughly 32 weeks of instruction. (The other 20 weeks in the calendar year were originally devoted to helping plant and harvest crops on the family farm.)
Yet at Britain’s first university, Oxford, a bachelor’s degree is typically awarded after three years of even more abbreviated (24 weeks of instruction) annual terms.
(Excerpt) Read more at jamesgmartin.center ...
First 2 years of college are wasted on “gen eds” and i’m sure there’s plenty of forced “white people are bad” courses that students are required to take.
The university system must be destroyed if we are going to take our country back and win over young people. They’re nothing but indoctrination centers.
The key is to have schools that train for specific jobs. Doctor schools, carpenter schools, engineer schools. It would be much more efficient, and it would cut out a lot of the communist BS these kids are being force fed at the universities.
Further, use of the internet must be maximized for cost savings, and to reduce time spent on campus for brainwashing.
I think one needs to develop a “knowledge portfolio”, have skills in several unrelated fields, because things change quickly, and the days of spending your entire working years in the same field is becoming a thing of the past.
That’s a fair point, but there’s also a lot of unnecessary “required” course, and frankly, most of the knowledge portfolio should have been obtained in H.S.
Makes sense, just have one big campus block party on day one and then give out the diplomas.
No question, especially things like Personal Finance.
Somethings take longer to learn than others. An Education degree, about two weeks. An engineering degree four to five years. If this idea is about reducing student debt and the cost of a college education, then the author is solving the wrong problem. Get government out of the student loan business. That includes insuring loans. The federal government can stop funding higher education. State government can stop funding any education with “studies” in the degree at state universities. Subsides for crap increases overhead costs to universities… buildings, staff, and administrators. Universities need to go on a diet. That diet is imposed by a shortage of students. Create that shortage of students by making money scarce. Money will make itself available for important things. Banks will loan money to students that have good grades and are studying STEM and business. They won’t lend money to a Gender Studies major where a fabulous career as a barista awaits after graduation.
“First 2 years of college are wasted on “gen eds””
The sort of general education that you get in the first two years of college is probably what kids should be learning in the final two years of high schools.
I want people who have a good general education as well as the deep knowledge in whatever field they are specializing in.
“is probably what kids should be learning in the final two years of high schools.”
looks like i was having the same thoughts as a couple of other posters.
I changed majors 3-4 times in college. I was interested in a broad swath of classical and in modern thought, literature and history. Most of this was NOT career oriented but has resulted in a lifetime of intellectual inquiry. I don’t regret this old fashioned education.
However, I’m not representative. Most young people today can’t afford to dabble in college, even if they had a mild interest in doing so. This article lays out some good analysis and suggestions. My state has a terrific “Career-Tech” system that provides excellent alternative paths to meaningful and lucrative careers. I’m a supporter.
I think one approach is, with everything now available online, is kind of a guided approach, a list of videos to watch and then assess the knowledge gained from watching the videos, and having human resources available to help clarify.
I’ve been watching videos about Math, because I’ve forgotten so much I learned when I was in school, I always kicked myself for not being better at Math and Physics.
I remember how Brits used to say something like this, “I read law at Oxford.” What they meant was they paid for a ticket to the library and spent time studying for the exam. They were literally reading law. If you could pass the test in three weeks good for you. If it took four years, well that is your business.
My homeschooled children entered community college at the ages of 13, 12, and 13. Two graduated with B.S. degrees in mathematics at the age of 18. The oldest was an international and nationally ranked athlete and finished at the typical age.
The top 10% of any high school enrollment could being doing what my children did. Instead, they are wasting their lives.
The economic benefit to my children in 4 years of extra working life is a quarter of a million to half million in earned income.
Please read my post #13.
That was how all attorneys used to learn the law. Abraham Lincoln did so, via apprenticeship. In some states that is (or at least was until recently) still an accepted process.
Yeah, but there already are schools which skip all the generally expected components of a well-rounded "white collar" education to just teach the raw necessities of "blue collar" training. They're called "vo-techs". There's nothing wrong with being classically well-educated. This is how western civilization's high culture is transmitted from one generation to the next and I, as a member of western civilization, am grateful for it. If this precious pearl of our inheritance is ever lost, it can never truly be recovered again.
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