College is a place where you learn to learn, or should be...
I would think that people should be learning to learn much younger than college-age, but that's an entirely different can of worms.
For Most People, College Is a Waste of Time
141–147 of 147 posts
Re: For Most People, College Is a Waste of Time
#142Earlier quoted context omitted.
No, we don't. I don't want some guild or certification authority telling me I can't program for a living until I've done 2 years of "journeyman" programming and passed my licensing exams.
I'm having trouble finding it right now, but there was a good argument posted here a while back for requiring a certification proving that programmers know how to write secure code. The analogy was that the market can already sort out good chefs from bad chefs, but that there should be a basic certification to prove that you understand food safety.
You're probably thinking of this article at Raganwald: http://weblog.raganwald.com/2007/07/certification-bring-it-o...
Rebuttal here: http://enfranchisedmind.com/blog/2007/07/04/certification-pl...
Re: For Most People, College Is a Waste of Time
#143Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's not there because all those professional guilds legally require a college degree. It used to be you could just pass the bar and become a lawyer. The bar associations then got laws passed requiring an actual law degrees, so people took inexpensive correspondence courses. The lawyers then fought back by requiring the schools be accredited, and setting minimum rules for face time. Thus you are forced to pay very ex…
Is it a scam? Do you really want people to be able to get engineering degrees without going through the rigour of a full college education? These are the people who design airplanes and cars and powerplants. Sure maybe it works for Java programming of some BS business app, but most of the exams out there are on fields where screwing up something has major consequences.
You actually think someone who went through "the rigour of a full college education" is any less likely to screw up than someone who passed a certification exam? I know plenty of people who coasted through a CS&E degree (Computer Science and Engineering) at my school, and I'm not sure I'd want them writing the software for "airplanes and cars and powerplants".
The point is that a degree doesn't prove much, and a certification can prove approximately as much at a significantly lower cost.
Re: For Most People, College Is a Waste of Time
#144Great article, though my day-dreamed educational system would be a little bit different. But who is to say which one's better until you implement them. On the same note, High school and middle school are pretty much a waste of time. In fact, any kind of system that categorize kids into homogeneous age groups are socially and psychologically unhealthy. How can kids learn form their peers if all of them have just about…
Reminds me of Montessori classrooms with mixed age-groups.
Re: For Most People, College Is a Waste of Time
#145Earlier quoted context omitted.
I really don't understand you. I have a shelf full of computer science and math textbooks behind me, which I read even though 1) I do not need them for work, and 2) I am not currently in school. I don't produce anything of value by reading The Art of Computer Programming , but I am still 'allowed' to do it. Nobody is paying me or permitting me, even though the stuff I do is still for pedagogical purposes.
I assume that most of your day is still spent producing something , which you get paid for. In school, such time does not exist; it's all learning. I think you're focused on incentives, which is orthogonal to my point. Regardless of why you learn (ranging from for your own enrichment or for practical gain), having a few years set aside to do nothing but learn means you will learn more. If you somehow have a job where…
Surely you don't mean that you spend all of your time at school doing thins with no productive value. I assume that you were still able to complete basic chores, personal hygiene tasks, etc. I spend more time on non-learning tasks while I'm at work, but it is feasible to work hard for a while, stop to learn things, work hard for a while again, etc. You seem pretty smart, so it's surprising that you'd doubt your ability to ever save up enough money to take some time off from working.
Re: For Most People, College Is a Waste of Time
#146College, more than being proof of a person's intelligence, is proof that you can jump through the hoops deemed appropriate by your "higher ups" (aka professors). Understandably, some employers consider this a desirable trait in employees. I call those employers Fascists :P
Re: For Most People, College Is a Waste of Time
#147The current system is the continuation of a historical establishment, which is the same with many other human-created systems. They will always be flawed, but humans will also be slow to react to changes; the larger the group, the older the establishment, the more resistant to change. While it is atrociously suboptimal, it's a bit much to call it a waste of time. Incidentally, I happened upon this article this mornin…
I went to one of these, so i think i know about it.
I think it creates another kind of establishment, and not a very likeable one at that. It's very much like the Ivy leagues colleges in the US. People are not out of school that they are already so very certain of their own worth, it's despicable.