Posted on 01/08/2020 7:33:08 AM PST by wintertime
Discard brick and mortar universities!
1) Free or nearly free education exists **NOW**! The missing ingredient is private systems of certified testing.
Should it cost a quarter of a million to become a doctor or engineer? The more reasonable cost is a tenth of that.
Most of the material needed to be mastered in the STEM fields is**ROTE** and changes little from year to year. It can be learned at home through the Internet and used textbooks.
Yes, some fields require laboratory and clinical rotations. These need a brick and mortar setting....BUT... these experiences can be found or created outside of a university, as well.
2) Encourage employers to use SAT/ACT scores, internships and insurance company input to determine levels of literacy and numeracy to safely and successfully do a job.
Most jobs are learned on the job. If a job didn't need a college degree in 1950, it doesn't need one today.
3) The above can apply to K-12 education, too. The missing key is private systems of certified testing.
Re: IBEW’s apprenticeship program
Sounds like a good model of learning.
Re: Pass legislation which explicitly says that standardized testing is NOT discriminatory
SAT and ACT scores are well accepted now as being non-biased, so your proposal seems doable.
Post/thread BUMP!
DEFUND socialist/totalitarian collectives, foreign and domestic.
Yes!....Rather than attempting the impossible ( reforming universities) we need to make an end run around the system. Either that or build ladders to climb over it. How about escape tunnels? :-)
The best way to do that is to provide better, faster, and cheaper **private** alternatives.
Free or nearly free education exists now. The missing key is certified testing.
Universities are being run like a bloated, democrat party run government with large payrolls for an increasing number of unnecessary positions. Call them what they really are, Leftist indoctrination camps. Eventually, the Administration will outnumber the student body. Wait, I just checked. Some already do.
Imagine the uptick in the economy. All that money, time, and energy wasted in useless university certificates would be moved into the wealth producing economy.
Kids and young adults, who are languishing in current school model, would be out in the economy creating wealth, health and fun for the world to enjoy.
Wow! Our GDP would soar!
“...Most of the material needed to be mastered in the STEM fields is**ROTE** and changes little from year to year. It can be learned at home through the Internet and used textbooks....”
I really don’t understand your use of the term “** ROTE**”!
“Rote” from the dictionary -” mechanical or habitual repetition of something to be learned”
If you think that STEM education is just spitting back what was said in class. Its clear you’ve never taken a STEM class. (I hate the term STEM!). Try taking a calculus test and just write back (as in rote!) as answers the last couple of days of notes.
At the undergraduate level of STEM about the only subjects that you might be able to be present the material completely on-line is mathematics and/or computer science. Even then its just a presentation, something will be missing. The student will know that on some level. Engineering, physics, chemistry need labs at the undergraduate level! For most its the only way that one finds out that reality and textbook only have a passing acquaintance. At the graduate level many of the courses are more theoretical and more of that could be on-line then currently is. However some courses are simply inadequately taught if done all online. I had some grad course like that, and I went away feeling I was missing something.
“....changes little from year to year....”
Electrical Engineering undergraduate education has changed a lot since the 1970s (When I was first familiar with it.). And not necessarily for the better. A lot of EE/physics, etc. departments have been moving toward simulating labs in software. Why? It’s cheaper! O&M costs are very low if labs exist as compiled programs to be called up. University/college administrators like those low costs. (Let’s the university/college upper administrator echelon hire more “diversity” goofballs!) Also safety is no longer an issue or another expense to be monitored & maintained!
I’ve hired engineer/scientists who had undergraduate educations with real labs & those who didn’t. Huge difference! The one’s without weren’t permanently crippled, but they were missing something and they soon knew it. The good ones worked to overcome that deficit, those that didn’t want to went into sales.
“1) Lawsuits based on disparate impact on minorities.”
Proof that the law is an ass. I’ll believe that silly worthless legal bull-obamastuff when we see only 15% or so minorities on our athletic teams.
“I wonder if Hunter Biden passed calc and phys at Yale.”
Neither that clown nor his cretin father could pass a sixth grade arithmetic exam.
Amen. It’s amazing that red state governments (taxpayers) still subsidize Marxist indoctrination. That defunding movement that needs to start right away.
That’s step 1.
Market forces will take care of some of the above ideas naturally.
But stopping this at foundation-run private colleges and blue state public colleges may take decades.
I have multiple degrees in mechanical and chemical engineering from higher universities
And I can clearly state , without hesitation , that anything you want to learn the matter how technical you can learn online
Now to be fair , I had multiple Nobel laureate’s in my chemical engineering time at UC Berkeley , and these gentlemen were absolutely brilliant , engaging and I learned a lot from them
But here’s a little secret for you college-age types: you can audit any class you want at any university!
you can walk in sit down with the notebook and listen any class anytime nobody can stop you
Yes, thanks for posting. Thanks to all posters.
17. Get control of the schools. Use them as transmission belts for socialism and current Communist propaganda. Soften the curriculum. Get control of teachers’ associations. Put the party line in textbooks.
18. Gain control of all student newspapers.
19. Use student riots to foment public protests against programs or organizations which are under Communist attack.
Re: Real Labs
I agree. One of the best ways to get “real” lab experience is with internships in **real** businesses doing **real** work.
It is obvious to me that laboratory and clinical rotations need brick and mortar settings with real people supervising. I agree with you that university isn’t the best place to get that experience, especially with the diversity hires.
you can walk in sit down with the notebook and listen any class anytime nobody can stop you
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Yep! Good point!.
“...
But here’s a little secret for you college-age types: you can audit any class you want at any university!
you can walk in sit down with the notebook and listen any class anytime nobody can stop you
..............”
From the days when I was in college\university.
True if they give you permission. Otherwise its trespassing & a form of theft of intellectual property. Sometimes you can get “unofficial” permission from the prof (I’ve done that too!) taking the class. You can do this as long as no one makes a big deal about it and the fact you are doing gets back to the administration. The bottom line they want your money!
Every college\university I went to if you audit you pay as much as if your were taking the course live. I did this so I know its true. (At least it was then!) Additionally you were precluded from taking that course at that college\university. (Did I mention they want your money?)
You’re misconstruing what I said!
” ...I agree with you that university isn’t the best place to get that experience, especially with the diversity hires. ....”
You can get the proper lab training at a college or university if you select the right one with the right program. My comment was the general trend was to remove labs and substitute poorly to save cost. My comment about administrators was mostly in jest.( I am not denying money spent on administrators is money irresponsibly spent!) My daughter went to a small college and got a degree in chemistry. That department really emphasized rigorous analytical & lab training. It served her well at the graduate level (PhD) at a big state school and now at her job.
You paint with way too broad a brush and your ire is aimed at the wrong targets!
Loosening Social Justice’s Iron Grip on Academia
https://www.jamesgmartin.center/2020/01/loosening-social-justices-iron-grip-on-academia/
Well....In a free market parents and their children would be free to choose any university that would except them. Employers, too, would be free to choose.
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