Posted by: Sal Atticum
« on: April 17, 2007, 03:47:04 PM »QuoteCollege is not specific job training--if it was so, it would be under the auspices of the corporate world, who would be dictating how everything was to be done. Universities have traditionally been a place to learn about what one wants to learn about, and to expand one's horizons (either academically, socially, or both).
I disagree with this. A liberal arts education, while not new, was never the intent of a college more less a University's goal. It was created to essentially funnel people through like cattle, gather funds, and put those funds basically into the intent of colleges, which was to breed researchers and create doctors and lawyers.
Although we aren't talking about why a lberal arts education was created, I just have to ask what all those colleges are for that don't have a relation to research fields, medicine, or law? College now has a worth to the people who are involved. I know people who were History majors. Why? Because they enjoy history, not because they thought it would get them a job as a lawyer.
Quote
Nowadays the intent of Universities and the liberal arts education is to create "well-rounded" individuals. How is that so, when the vast majority take watered down curriculum to satisfy their graduating requirements. Soc 101, Psych 101, Music 101, etc.... Who here is guilty of that crap?
Until I started graduate school, I never took a class that I was not interested in. Ironic, eh?
Quote
Quotef it was so, it would be under the auspices of the corporate world, who would be dictating how everything was to be done.
Seriously, is that not how it is now after you graduate? You have a piece of paper that essentially says, hey I am grown up now and I can leave the sand box. You start working for a corp (which I do) and you are funneled through a system where you don't really grow personally, you are molded into what they really want and/or need.
Yes, it is that way--after you graduate. Exxon is not here teaching us how to do Geology, Dow is not here teaching is how to do Chemistry, Random House is not here teaching is how to do English. If universities are what you claim they should be, we would be accepting corporate control of every detail of our education.
Quote
So the education you received is nothing but a sick joke, the corp is paying you big dollars to fill a need and be what they need you to be. The real advantage here is - Do you have the ability to make yourself dynamic and feel future needs as they arise and not see the tail end of the job service line in 10 years. Adaptability and a sharp IQ is what you really need to survive in the corp world.
I do not agree that education is a sick joke, because I do not agree that all education is for is to get us a place in the corporate world so we can waste away our lives in a cubical doing someone else's work. True education should be as much about deciding what you like as deciding what you are good at.
Many people need to be educated how to be adaptable--without the basics, you cannot learn to adapt to change. The corporate world, as much as they want hot young minds, does not want to teach them from the ground up.
Quote
Now, that is just the corp world, sure you can become part of numerous professions that have little to do with the corp world - but then again - some of the same rules apply.
Which makes me quesiton what the corporate world is doing that makes it so much better than anything else.