I hear this thing a lot especially from americans that college is not that important or unecessary. In an advanced economy like america where jobs used to be bountiful that might make a point but let's ask ourselves why we go to college. Some people go to college just for the springbreaks and hot college girls and drinking and oh to get a paper saying you have graduated, i think one should go to college to get an education and when i say education i mean feeding and nurturing your mind. A typical example of a wasteof years in college is Sarah Palin who has a mass communication degree but clearly is dumber that a brickwall and someone like that wont inspire you to go to college. In my country where we have about 5 public universities and a sprinkling of private ones , college is very important and only the best and the brightest can get a college degree since demand is more than supply hence only the best grades will get you to a university unlike americas especially where colleges abound henceyou dont need to be a very good student to enroll in a college. In a nutshell all i am saying is personally i think college or university education is important although i must add that the choice of subjects must also be taken into consideration.
There is not just 'college' within a particular frame of thinking. Personally, in my educational experience I find a lot of education in the US has been influenced by the Harvard Business School philosophy. I'm not discrediting US colleges in any way, but this is a different type of learning that is career-orientated, and may not suit everybody. Excuse me for sounding like a snob, but a 'classical' education where you do a range of disciplines including languages is a very solid base for becoming a critical thinker, which is what its all supposed to be about. Then you can go get the bit of paper that pays the bills like your law or your business or your finance or whatever takes your fancy. It's not easy but it is possible, you work lots of crappy jobs for along time to put yourself through it though of course. But work isn't your whole life, anyway. This guy just seems like an attention seeker to me who hasn't really thought about what he's saying. Basically I see now I'm agreeing with what Appiah is saying, we were posting at the same time. It's about the value of the education itself. Sadly in the US though college is ridiculously expensive and the government doesn't help out enough, so not all people are lucky enough.
yeah math at some institutions are considered liberal arts. at UAH it is. Naw Im going elementary ed....I like kids but Im gonna also do math to tutor on the side (at least Im thinking on it). I love the shit out of math it gets to be hell at cal 2 higher. Im ok but shit if you gonna go thru hell at least get paid for it but that is not why you teach tho also going from a business undergrad to education and in math will take a good bit of time and money depending on the situation
I don't think Appiah was comparing lives. He was saying that she has a mass communication degree and she can't even string a sentence together clearly, so he's wondering what she learnt at college.
yeah I know but If Im not mistaken i was at uah and they had in the liberal arts dept. I was like what. this is not a HBCU school If my memory served me. I was under the impression is was under science.
Her life is no great thing IMO. Coming up with dumb stuff to say to keep people interested, people bashing her and her daughters and she's notoriously thin-skinned, knowing it could all go away at any time. I mean her reality show only lasted one season, that's a sign right there. She's making some bread right now but she's no rock star. I predict she will run for President in 2012, she won't get past Iowa, then her star will start to fade because it's the end of the narrative.
it seems it is possible http://www.collegeboard.com/csearch/majors_careers/profiles/majors/24.0101.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberal_Arts It was the education department they had under liberal arts...which is different to other schools. so if you were going to teach math in high school you were still a liberal arts under UAH. which is different http://www.uah.edu/colleges/liberal/
I really liked the above post, most importantly the views on people not going away to 4 year schools. I also feel they are missing out on one of the most important aspects of college. Those that actually go away to private schools/ boarding schools do get that experience earlier on, but it's completely different still in that it is a very structured environment. I once heard a man say in regards to people who pursue history degrees, "History is for people with boring presents." That represents how people feel about liberal arts degrees. It's sad really. I feel if you go to a school for higher learning, a degree should looked upon as all others are, regardless of how that may be. A great thread, and some great views towards college in modern times. It really is just another business with a lot of money changing hands, but this is nothing new. It has always been that way. The people that can afford to get a piece of paper to say they are superior to others, usually will. It's those that do it to enlighten themselves that are truly getting educated.
Those of us that are consumers deserve more. That's all I'm saying. Spending all that time and money without tangible skills is fricking ridiculous. And truthfully most programs are completely overrated. You don't need 120 credit hours to learn about history and if you do you're not to bright. Like in my program I had to take political theory 1 2 and 3. Everything is covered in theory 1 so why are we doing 2 and 3. At least in courses like calculus calc q prepares you for calc 2 you can't do calc 3 without it. In liberal arts most classes don't build on anything.
Yeah, I guess it's pretty straightforward to learn the nuances of a complicated, diverse and endlessly changing political world in one unit so why do the other two Some people spend their whole lives studying the powerbrokers that have shaped our world. The point of learning is to realise how humble you should be in never being able to know it all. I'm with the others like Royce and above. There is plenty of value in learning to think critically. If you can't see how to apply those skills and sell them into something 'tangible' then do some communication units. I understand that some people feel they are paying XXX amount of $$ and it should be an automatic passport to making XXX amount of $$ but that's a narrow minded view of education. I don't blame you though, it's shaped by the problem with the US education system in that it's not subsidised enough by government. Ultimately everyone will always think differently on this. It's an endless debate. But just devote time to something you think is valuable and worthwhile, that you can feel happy you did. I won't say easy or always enjoyable, because not everything worthwhile is supposed to be easy. But you just have to make the choice that's good for you and fuck what anyone else thinks.
LOL the oh-so-smart African condescending to a lowly American cotton-picker, what a shock. Teach me more, African man :roll:
did you even bother to read what he said and realised it was a dense statement in reaction to my comment about sarah palin ? He was trying to be sarcastic and i declined to reply and thankfully someone had to break it down and i cosigned her and where is this cotton picker crap coming from anyway? Well it's your problem not mine .Some of you will need to get used to the fact that this particular African because he will continue to be here and tell you it to your face if you make a stupid remark some have done it already and i am sure there will be more.
It's worse in the UK. They had tuition riots in December of last year when Parliament wanted to increase the tuition rate from $9,000 GBP to $14,000 GBP or something. I'm not sure how much that converts to in US currency.
Yes, it is right now. I'm in Australia myself so have been watching the debate unfold about the austerity measures with interest on BBC world news, etc. I don't know the nuance of the debate, but with sadness I do see conservatives who have benefited from a free education slashing the entitlements. Hopefully they sent out the middle class welfare before that.
