College: The biggest scam we'll ever buy
marcanthonyrosa.com
College: The biggest scam we'll ever buy
1–10 of 34 posts
Re: College: The biggest scam we'll ever buy
#2You didn't explicitly go over how creativity is stunted other than saying it isn't rewarded. College teaches you new facts, it is extremely objective in it's teachings so that later on you can expand your ideas and creativity upon what you learned subjectively. It s a great place to expand upon things that have already been discovered in a structured manner allowing you to specialize in a timely manner (as compared to learning on your own).
Maybe I'm just biased, but if you find my ideas odd please inform me of why you believe so as I'd love to hear!
Re: College: The biggest scam we'll ever buy
#3This guy should have gone to Evergreen
Re: College: The biggest scam we'll ever buy
#4Maybe, just maybe, the college system isn't as perfect as we'd like to believe. Maybe, just maybe, we've been learning the entirely wrong lessons.
Maybe, just maybe, this theme is a little tired. I keep hearing this, and I keep believing it. Cramming for tests does not a creative person make. But neither does sitting around talking about your creativity. Ultimately creativity comes from what we do and make, and college is nowhere near perfect for that, but then again college can't optimize for anything, because there are far too many things it might prepare a student for, however well.
Incidentally, I don't believe college should be placed on the pedestal it often is, to the point that wondering if it's "as perfect as we'd like to believe" is the wrong question entirely. e.g. http://www.paulgraham.com/credentials.html
Re: College: The biggest scam we'll ever buy
#5College, and school in general, is a strange game indeed. Probably the only way to get through it unscathed (or with minor scars) is with an intense amount of perspective, that is, not taking it too seriously. If you mold your very being around "winning" at school, you are probably hurting your ability to win at life -- to be successful or even fulfilled.
I wish I knew then what I know now, but I hope to teach my kids healthy priorities and time management skills.
Re: College: The biggest scam we'll ever buy
#6The first two sentences of his last paragraph:
"Is college really a scam? Most likely, no."
Thanks for admitting your title was linkbait?
Also, it's fine if you're going to complain about the college experience, but please offer alternatives. It's much easier to bitch than to come up with solutions.
Re: College: The biggest scam we'll ever buy
#7I'm not sure I get what this guy is getting at. I've been through 2 colleges in 2 different countries (BA and MS) and am on my second job right now right after my MS. Not to list my credentials or anything, but in general no matter where I go, it's always a systematic thing that we as humans created and we have to tackle. The biggest challenge in a job is not the job but the organization.
Organizations aside, even in startup land or various just small companies as you know it, there are restrictions, in different forms. Customer satisfaction, for one. Investor pressure, as another, and they can be restrictions, or challenges depending on how you see it.
My problem with college is that for most of the folks, when they get into college, they don't really know what they want, with the new found freedom and gets distracted by the various frat like bonding activities that goes on in the campus.
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I don't think creativity exists in some sort of pure unadulterated sort of vacuum where an individual is "free". Philosophically speaking, no one is ever "free". No one wants to be either.
Truly successful people are successful despite of the system. They are successful because they know how to break out of the system. They understand (metaphorically speaking) the system and how to cross the line so that the create something new. That, is creativity.
Unfortunately, my opinion is that most people try the best to construct some sort of structure to "teach the young", so to speak; I don't think there's any malice in there. The truth is, you can't teach people to be creative. You can teach people to be different, but if different becomes the norm, then different is no longer different. To be truly creative, one needs to have a good combination of observation, introspection, good working ethics (i.e. slog through the details) and willpower.
Re: College: The biggest scam we'll ever buy
#8I'd argue that college is the perfect medium for learning about creativity: creative opportunities don't fall into your lap. Your first novel, album, or photography exhibit won't materialize from air--you have to work towards them. (That explains why I haven't made music yet!)
Students can be creative in writing or painting classes, robotics lab, go-kart engineering shops, or even on their political science papers or statistics projects. None of those are required (maybe the papers and projects), just like writing a novel isn't a pre-requisite for life, but students have the option to participate.
Again, to beat a dead horse a little further: college is what you make of it. If you memorize bold words, you're ready to file TPS reports; if you take that pottery class or join the robotics competition, you're ready to enjoy all of life's dimensions.
(Also, I flagged this because (a) it's another college-bashing piece and (b) it has possibly the worst argument against college I've seen so far.)
Re: College: The biggest scam we'll ever buy
#9Education is what you make it.
If the grading structure is so rigid and foolish, then it ought to be trivial to game it, leaving almost all your time free to get laid/start a business/contemplate the human condition to your heart's content.
If you choose to spend your time trying to eke out as many marks as possible from each minute spent cramming, then I'd wager you probably aren't imaginative enough to be ultra-successful anyway. Aim to leave university having done something so cool that your eventual grade is rendered irrelevant, (ideally so irrelevant that you can drop out.)
"But these benefits cannot completely justify a system where creativity and genuine learning isn't properly rewarded."
If you're in your 20s and you still need to be "rewarded" by a teacher giving you a shiny gold star then again, something is wrong.
EDIT: upon consideration, I am putting across a somewhat elitist view here. Not everyone can be expected to "do something so cool that your eventual grade is rendered irrelevant," to transcend their peers in order to gain value from their degree; that's a contradiction. There are indeed many flaws in the system and it is unreasonable to say "just hack your way around them for your own benefit!" when we could just fix the system so one can take the normal, average route though it and still get value from one's money/time.
In lieu of that though, I still think what I said stands, although I didn't have to pay american tuition fees.
Re: College: The biggest scam we'll ever buy
#10College is important. I've been reading an ever increasing stack of articles suggesting it's not nearly as important as we once thought it was. Perhaps that's true, though i'd suggest that it's a matter of confusion. College is expensive, too expensive. This is the point we should be focusing on, not on the matter of whether or not to attend.
In my opinion the reason it is expensive is because the market is not operating properly. And the reason the market is incorrect is because the role of higher education changed, but the business model hasn't. The labor market is the only market where the supply pays for the privilege of fulfilling the demand. In my opinion the demand consists of companies demanding people with advanced skill sets. The supply is you and me, the future employees. College used to be a service to finely prep a pupil for an aristocratic life. Today I view it as an institution to develop new skills for the benefit of industry.
For this purpose I think the solution to the education bubble is to move higher education into the public education system. In my opinion that would result in a series of policies that would both increase the presence of higher education, and decrease the lifetime cost to the student.