I think we go wrong with living in fancy housing, driving new cars, etc. Get a solid degree, live simple, learn, then find a good job, or better yet start your own organization!
Posted on 06/03/2016 8:52:15 AM PDT by Lorianne
Short, intense directed apprenticeships that teach students how to learn on their own to mastery are the future of higher education.
So it turns out sitting in a chair for four years doesn't deliver mastery in anything but the acquisition of staggering student-loan debt. Practical (i.e. useful) mastery requires not just hours of practice but directed deep learning via doing of the sort you only get in an apprenticeship.
The failure of our model of largely passive learning and rote practice is explained by Daniel Coyle in his book The Talent Code (sent to me by Ron G.), which upends the notion that talent is a genetic gift. It isn't--in his words, it's grown by deep practice, the ignition of motivation and master coaching.
Using these techniques, student reach levels of accomplishment in months that surpass those of students who spent years in hyper-costly conventional education programs. The potential to radically improve our higher education system while reducing the cost of that education by 90% is the topic of my books Get a Job, Build a Real Career and Defy a Bewildering Economy and The Nearly Free University and the Emerging Economy: The Revolution in Higher Education.
Let's start by admitting our system of higher education is unsustainable and broken: a complete failure by any reasonable, objective standard. Tuition has soared $1,100% while the output of the system (the economic/educational value of a college degree) has declined precipitously.
A recent major study, Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses, concluded that "American higher education is characterized by limited or no learning for a large proportion of students."
'Academically Adrift': The News Gets Worse and Worse (The Chronicle of Higher Education)
(Excerpt) Read more at charleshughsmith.blogspot.jp ...
You are sort of right. College is not worth it. And much of what is taught is not even valuable. Its often old or is freely available. Professors are not the smartest, best people. While they tend to be smart. The smartest leave college. Professors are basically a bunch of sort of smart bureaucrats. Anyone with a little gumption is not teaching Chemistry 101.
College has only one value. You get to spend four years with your peers. Of course you get to spend another 30 years with your peers as you get into the workforce.
I suggest you go as far as you can on KhanAcademy.com. And then go as far as you can on Codecademy.com Then go get a programming job. You will be $100,000 better off. And you will learn the work force. Later you can take whatever classes you need. But those classes are likely to be free on the web.
If you can’t handle programming. Get into Plumbing, or be an electrician or even a truck driver.
Seriously? This is not the America I grew up in. Beam me up Scotty.
Unfortunately, these are the biggest companies in the United States. It is how most of the Fortune 500 operates, and when they come in and buy your company, if you’re on the no hire list, you will be downsized as part of the merger.
Unfortunately, these are the biggest companies in the United States. It is how most of the Fortune 500 operates, and when they come in and buy your company, if you’re on the no hire list, you will be downsized as part of the merger.
Your mentioned software. The IT/code/programmer crowd are just the latest casualties of the offshore/H1-B onslaught.
Twenty years ago, companies were shedding electrical, mechanical, computer, and most other engineers like you wouldn’t believe. Two years after NAFTA, and the WTO entry of china, and a degreed engineer was on par with a manager of a burger king.
The IT crowd are merely the latest victims of a global slave trade that been going on for at least the the last 20+ years. I’m actually surprised that all of the code/IT crowd lasted as long as they did.
Completely disagree with this statement. Institutions of higher education have helped educate some of the most effective leaders in our history. Many of the Founders, military commanders, scientists, religious leaders, and businessmen were trained through public, private, and military institutions of higher education.
Training, planning, discovery, research, and teaching helped the US gain independence, defeat the AXIS powers, land on the moon, create vaccines, and build profitable businesses. It's trendy to say, throw out the entire system and give money to smart young people to go do great things. Can that be effective, sure it can...Peter Thiel and Rowe are doing this now. There is still a place for labs, experimentation, learning, and research at the collegiate level.
Does higher education need to change? I could get on board with that, but to say it's been a failure by any standard is just completely wrong!
I think we go wrong with living in fancy housing, driving new cars, etc. Get a solid degree, live simple, learn, then find a good job, or better yet start your own organization!
Does higher education need to change? I could get on board with that, but to say it’s been a failure by any standard is just completely wrong!
It is a gigantic failure. Was infested with liberals in the 60’s and completely destroyed after that. Certainly the educational system WAS excellent but it has become a cancer filled with liberals. The system today is a indoctrination system with a smattering of STEM education.
Here are some general principles:
Nobody will pay you unless you have marketable knowledge and skills. If you want to learn about esoteric subjects do it on your own or audit a course.
The humanities have become totally corrupted. Avoid.
Don't believe the hype. Colleges prey on the naivety and immaturity of adolescents. Nothing magical is going to happen. If you do your job you will learn how to learn. After that it's up to you.
Ego inflation is not a valid reason to go to college.
Her experiences sound like some that I know about with family owned telco.
Catbert’s head would have spun off his body.
I reserve the right to any expression of free speech on the back window of my car. The company can take a flying leap.
I recently got a company car. While there are no enumerated rules, it’s their car so I’ll be circumspect with any stickers. My boss has a campaign sticker for a republican congressional candidate on his car, so that’s my indicator.
The candidate literally saved my boss’ life, so the sticker is a cetainty.
I have a friend who has an impressive closing resume and cannot get permanent employment. It’s been years of mid-term contract work.
He wrote a program for one of the big retail chains that saves them undress of millions a year, yet he’s not employable.
I want to second your comment #28.
Fully 1/4 of the required credits for my engineering degree are useless liberal arts (indoctrination) requirements. Few if any of the courses offered actually teach skills that are in demand in industry. Ironically, to get the skills that will actually land you a decent job after graduation, you have to go to community college or a trade school.
This is not by accident or incompetence. US higher education is being destroyed on purpose, and it’s an inside job.
We need cheaper—and better—conservative Colleges. A chain of Colleges coast to coast. Let the lefties keep the old Ivy League schools they infiltrated and dominate—we need a whole new sort of college. Old dog teachers from real life not academia—Old Generals and Captains, Old businessmen, old preachers, old people who are retired and who will work for peanuts. They would be better teachers—using life experences than what we have now. Political idealigogs.
If I was up and coming, I would learn a skill, then get an education.
What I am saying is over time, the value of a college degree is a great investment and many of our greatest leaders were college educated. To make blanket statements that the entire thing is a failure....well I don't believe it. I am thankful we have solid higher education system because I am able to use modern technology and advanced medicine.
Correlation is not causation. Smarter people tend to make more money. Often the 4 years of lost opportunity has little to do with it. Half of self-made billionaires do not have a college degree. College does not hand out brains, only offers a series of hurdles to certify who has them.
“You old Boomers should have not made college for everyone lol.”
Well, I’m an old Boomer and “college for everyone” started with the GI Bill for my father’s (the so-called Greatest) generation. Women began to catch up, and then surpass, men in college-going rates in the late 1970s.
Always exceptions to the rule, but on average I would take my chances with a craftsman's skill/mechanical skill -and- a college degree.
That is absolutely horrifying. This kind of thing is why this country is too far gone to redeem.
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