Posted on 09/12/2005 10:31:59 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Yup. See my note below (part is sarcasm, but part is true).
I would have done the same.
What about the parties?
If I could do it all over again, I would have gone to college first, then joined the military....
I did a bachelors in three years.
The dirty little fact is that too many colleges DO allow students to goof off and merely con their teachers...
But some of us had to work part time, and get A's to keep our scholarships...so worked our tails off...
I could do it...but many students were not grown up enough to do it...that little thing called maturity...
Indeed, I support having kids take two years off to go into service type volunteer jobs...without losing the chance to go to college or losing their scholarship...
Or maybe do like kids in the "work study" programs at Drexel University...take five years toward a degree, because you work on and off
There are already plans in many states where this can happen.
My 17 year old is a senior in high school (but he doen't really go to high school and never has.)
Our county has "dual enrollment," so when he was in 10th grade (15) he started taking all his classes at the local college (we have two state colleges in town, both participte in the program.)
Going into this term, he has 57 credits, finishes his three needed to complete his AA, and has started this term and next taking more classes toward his major. (Yes, most of the classes up to now are "required courses" and some are aimed at leftist indoctrination...that's the beauty of having the kid at home, you can get a sense if the indoctrination is having any effect...which in our case it didn't.)
Technically, this puts kids 2 years ahead, so they finish their bachelors about the time they're 20, i.e. graduate high school and get an AA all at the same time.
And did I mention that the program is tuition free?
college ping
To parents, I say help cover the costs if you absolutely must, but only to a certain degree. From experience, I know that kids will put in much more effort if they're the ones footing the bill for their education.
When I first went away to college at age 17 (and I was an honor roll student in high school, back when that actually meant something), my dad was of the opinion that I needed to concentrate on my studies only, he he would worry about the finances. Guess who flunked out in record time?
Fast forward 26 years. Guess who has a mortgage, kids, a job, college to pay for, and has had a 4.0 GPA nearly every semester? Sure, maturity has a lot to do with it. But just a year after I originally flunked out of school, I went back for 2 semesters before getting pregnant, and got 4.0 both semesters. I was paying for it.
If they stuck to actual teaching, a student can get our current 16 years' of education in 12 or less. But of course that would undermine the left wing's immensely profitable academia scam.
I second that - I wish I'd joined the military out of high school.
Notice how much "core curriculum" is required of all college students; often ridiculous courses "taught" by grad students or TA's to hundreds at a time. It's all about revenue, folks; NOT learning.
3 years? Why go to college at all, unless you expect to specialize in something? Way too many kids are going to college merely because it's expected (by parents, culture, and prospective employers) rather for any rational reason.
My one English teacher was (English, that is), and that made that course worthwhile, imo.
Then, too, I think I was one of the lucky ones...and that was nearly 30 years ago.
I do not even recognize some of the 'majors' now when I hear what people received their degree in.
With them, even if you do not know squat, you can get a really good job regulating the folks who know what is going on...
What the H... do you want? I spent 4 years plus a summer in college to get a BS degree. (Ticket to drudgery).
Then 30 years in a career. Retired from that after 30 years of public accounting (45 human years?).
If I had known then what I know now, I would have found a way to spend 7-8 years in college. Maybe got MS or MBA, retire after 25 years in career. College was way more fun than career, just slightly less fun than retirement. Screw work!
No. Most universities live under the fiction that they are creating "scholars," or giving every enrollee the opportunity to have the chance at receiving a liberal arts education and becoming one. That's why there are so many elective courses that Junior takes, laughs about, and never remembers by the start of summer.
I agree with the author. Get the training or education done with and move on to adulthood.
We could just hand our children over the Village at birth. Once they have worked off their debt to the Village we can have them back.
I worked my behind off for 4 years. Of course, I was a dual major engineering student at Duke. I had many friends that didn't do a thing their senior years, other than drink. Of course, many of those friends are now finishing their residencies and are practicing doctors... :)
"A lot of young people would rather acquire the knowledge and skill necessary to a productive career than to waste precious time in an extended adolescence. Teams, clubs fraternities, and student government are forms of recreation, and unless the student is footing the bill for his education, housing, and all expenses, he is not learning to live on his own. He is still a subsidized child."
I couldn't agree with you more and I am a college student. I want to get out of here and start taking care of myself but am forced an environment of "extended adolescence" that I loathe so much. Great way to put it.
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