Posted on 11/06/2015 7:11:34 PM PST by MtnClimber
I’m constantly hearing from folks – particularly young adults – having a tough time landing a decent job, let alone developing a career with long-term potential.
In nearly every case they got a useless degree, dropped out, are unwilling to move to where the jobs are, are just not driven to do what it takes to be successful or were duped into thinking that making it in the wonderful world of Web 2.0 is like falling off a log.
Let’s talk about why that is, starting with some very low hanging fruit: useless degrees.
In this day and age, what in the world inspires so many supposedly career-minded young people to take on ginormous student loan debt to obtain liberal arts degrees that haven’t been in demand since resumes were done on typewriters? And where are their doting, or maybe the more accurate word is coddling, parents in all this?
Most Liberal Arts programs have turned into socialist and PC indoctrinaation programs.
a liberal arts education is fine for students who do not plan to use their college educations to try to earn a living
young scions of the wealth elite (who will never work anyway)
or
older people who have already made successful careers (and likely are retired or nearly so)
I think art, music, literature, etc are wonderful for the insights and appreciation they can bring to a person’s life. They just normally should not be confused with career-path majors is all. It is the parents’ responsibility (and the school counselors’) to advise students of the realities.
The alternative to a liberal arts education is vocational training to be a highly skilled slave. College degrees that don’t require you to be trained in grammar, logic, languages, and clear thinking are worse than worthless. I realize most people harbor no higher ambition than to be a well fed slave, but honestly it’s nothing to boast about.
For a young person coming out of college today a liberal arts degree may seem a waste in light of student debt. I would offer a competing view.
Many of us who majored in STEM programs failed to take classes in liberal arts due to the load our majors required. That failure in many cases lead us to become technologists with too little understanding of humanity.
In fact IBM and other early technology companies came to understand this in the late 1950’s. They set up programs with Harvard and the Aspen Institute to provide a liberal education to their up and coming managers. The programs consisted of readings in literature and philosophy, and seminars to discuss what the participants learned.
These programs were not indoctrinations but rather learning opportunities that gave managers insight into the human condition. Generally what they learned was that humans generally desire the same things in life regardless of the culture, nationality or language. This commonality bypasses what we think of in terms of our differences.
Let me give you some example from several movies that have been produced over the years. The first one I’d recommend viewing is Akira Kurasowa’s Seven Samurai. Then watch the Magnificent Seven. Same plot different culture, language and time period. Both films were considered masterpieces because of what they showed relative to the human condition.
The second series of movies begins with the Kurasowa film Yojimbo. Follow that with A Fist Full Of Dollars. Follow that with Last Man Standing. Again same plot, three different cultures, languages and time periods.
We often put down others because they think differently from us. What I would suggest is that you look at the areas we have common beliefs in and start the conversation there.
The liberal arts education you describe is as dead as the famous Monty Python parrot. You might be able to find that kind of education at St. Johns or a half a dozen other schools, but the colleges of liberal arts today mainly provide sinecures for aging leftists.
You are living in the 50s mentally if you think a liberal arts degree today provides an understanding of humanity. I have a Ph.D in a liberal art, and I’ve watched what has happen to the liberal arts in the universities since 1970. With the exception of a handful of schools, what passes for the liberal arts in contemporary universities should be avoided. Those programs represent NEGATIVE value added.
Yes, but under the progressives the liberal arts will rule over science. They are already doing this under global warming.
Why do I imagine a young plumber, mechanic, etc. starting their own business after a while and ultimately become "the richest guy in town"?
Those "slaves" will be laughing all the way to the bank!
Liberal arts majors are the most well-rounded people.
I remember a letter to the editor of the Dallas Morning News in 1969 from a North Texas State graduate with a bachelor’s in history. He was angry that not only could he not get a job with his degree but the school hadn’t even taught him how to type. Plus ca change...
Liberal arts degrees are an excuse to avoid real work. They are meant for the idle rich, useless and stupid drones who pretend they are adding something to civilization, rather than indulging in social masturbation.
It's the unadmitted truth that liberal arts degrees are given to those without useful mental abilities. The stupid, who are told they are 'creative' and that IQ tests are 'inaccurate' or 'culturally biased', to cushion the discovery that they are mentally inferior.
We STEM types feed liberal arts majors, keep them warm, clothed, informed, safe. They, in turn, denigrate, test, sneer, and threaten our very existence.
The solution is obvious, if somewhat unpleasant and very messy.
I’d love to design a course of study that bridges the two in a more effective way, since the primary purpose of a college education is to teach the student how to think and solve problems, and how to continue the learning process through life. Logic as a philosphy class is void of utility, but logic in C++ on an Arduino is a marketable skill. Ultimately, my ultimate university would produce entrepreneurs and makers, not philosophers and poets.
Depends on the school. Depends on the program.
Awesome post.
“I have watched what has happened to the liberal arts in the universities since 1970. ...Those programs represent NEGATIVE value added.”
Maybe that is a factor in this phenomena - the job applicants from these re-education camps come in parroting slogans that make practical employers recoil in horror.
Add to it their idiotic expectations based on unearned self esteem and the belief they should start at or near the top.
Atudent loans have become communist prof gravy train. It is a catastrophy, an intelligence and national defense catastrophy.
We now are saddled with these feral hipster animals without a job and in debt, so desperate they go gay or marry muslims. They talk on Youtube of surrounding the White House if a conservative is elected. I do not think a conservative president could make it with government protection alone. Plenty of convicts are now getting hired in the Fed.
I think professional programs at Universities have improved over the years, particularly business programs. When I first started hiring people in the late 80’s.. I generally looked for liberal arts majors as they were great writers and communicators. Sadly, other than knowing how to prepare spread sheets, a lot of the business interns we had working for a marketing firm... could not write a coherent paragraph.They were usually not offered permanent positions.
People are confused what a university is for. Most seem to think it is a job mill turning out individuals with the appropriate pieces of paper to enter the work force. Others think of it as a farm system for professional football. Some think of it as a research facility of corporations and medicine.
The original intent of a university was to create a well rounded individual who possessed an appreciation for learning. It was meant as a continuum for the trivium and the quadrivium.
What it has become is a place where people mark time without serious study awaiting endowment of a degree supposedly to gain employment. No wonder they are disappointed after graduation. What they really need is trade school.
For anyone who cares, I suggest reading Simon Ley’s “The Idea of the University,” from his book “The Halls of Uselessness.”
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.