Q
qui_est_ce
Guest
Thanks for the encouragement. All his life people made excuses for him, like “he’s bored,” he needs more stimulation, blah, blah.
That’s exactly the plan.
- Status
R
ringil
Guest
I say go for it Sarah! Can always count on you for a good laugh. 
I
irishpatrick
Guest
If Palin got into the race, and if she won the nomination, then Obama will be re-elected. Palin quit her office in Alaska, and while many people like her personally and like her views, they do not want a quitter in the White House.
I really hope she stays out of this race.
I really hope she stays out of this race.
R
ringil
Guest
Oh, conservatives and their talk of the “over-educated”. If it weren’t so sad it would be funny. I wonder how many on the Right aren’t encouraging their kids to obtain higher education. . . Such disservice is nearly parental neglect.
B
bbarrick8383
Guest
Sad part about it all is those who call her a quitter would have done the exact same thing.
B
bbarrick8383
Guest
I’ve been telling my straight A son for a few years now that I didn’t care what he did in life as long as he was happy doing it. He can mow yards or be a lawyer, either way he doesn’t know yet what he’d like to do so I tell him he should really study hard in case he chooses lawyer.
R
ringil
Guest
Well no matter what my daugher wants to be, unless she turns out as dumb as a bag of hammers, she’s at least getting an undergraduate education.
College shapes the mind. The fundamentals of an under-graduate education teach the student how to think critically, how to process information, and develope the cognitive structures for life-long learning. People aren’t born with these and “street smarts” don’t provide them.
Common sense, or as the psychological community is coming to think of it “the emotional quotient”, is as important as the ability to synthesize data, so this shouldn’t be underrated either.
A well-rounded person needs both.
E
estesbob
Guest
My kids have two Masters and a law degree between them. They didn’t need those degrees to know the difference between having a degree and being a member of Academia b Academics always know what is best for us. After all their ideas worked brilliantly in every term paper they ever wrote
D
Darryl1958
Guest
Some people want her in the race because they don’t believe she has a chance. In the meantime she will serve as a lightning rod attracting all the negative press while the other candidates stay out of the constant barrage that the leftist MSM has for conservatives in general.
R
ringil
Guest
Oh, the conservative generals, boldly meeting the onslaught of the evil leftist media. It’s the stuff movies are made off. . . .
S
Scott_Lafrance
Guest
I encourage my kids to get whatever education IS NECESSARY. I don’t have a college degree and I make 6 figures. Having a fancy slip of paper isn’t necessary to make it. Hard work, determination, and FOCUSED education are.
R
Raskolnikov
Guest
And the only reason for education is to mazimixe the amount of money one makes? Sad. But even so, the best jobs almost invariably require a college education. Maybe not for Steve Jobs and Billl Gates, but then again they are remarkably acceptional people.
And a mere slip of paper? You should see the labs they have at my university, perhaps talk to some of the professors about the subjects they study. As a person who is all for autodidacticism, I would say that there are so many resources one has access to at a good university that are immeasurably more intructive than just the books you can find at the public library.
D
Darryl1958
Guest
Which movie has been made that deals with this subject? Can you even name one?Oh, the conservative generals, boldly meeting the onslaught of the evil leftist media. It’s the stuff movies are made off. . . .
…
I wouldn’t (and didn’t) say that the MSM is evil.
…
But from Hollywood to the New York Times, the leftist bias is as almost as apparent as the right wing bias of talk radio. It has been that way for over a generation now at least.
At least with talk radio, they are upfront about their point of view. Unfortunately, unlike Britains papers, most of the North American media has not yet developed insight into the fact that they even have biases.
But it is just common knowledge to everybody else. It is as pointless to argue about that as it is to argue about the color of the sky.
…
All the popcorn you are eating in the peanut gallery will end up making you fat btw. Coconut oil may be tasty but it does pour on the pounds, to say nothing of the cholesterol homing in on the old ticker.
R
rlg94086
Guest
I am encouraging my kids to get their degrees, so they have it a little easier than I have. Like Scott, I’ve made six-figures; however, I’m going through my second layoff, and there are certainly more jobs that require a degree. I do agree that job/income isn’t the only reason to get a degree, but really…$100k is a lot to spend for personal fulfillment.
That said, I take issue with the bolded segment above. I’ve worked with far too many people with bachelor’s degrees who are dumber than a box of rocks. I’ve even worked with brilliant PhDs in their fields who lacked basic critical thinking skills when it comes to everyday stuff. One of the brilliant (both as an engineer and common sense) PhDs I worked with recognized this…he went to MIT but had no qualms about hiring a non-degreed engineer who showed their aptitude. He told me that basic engineering reasoning is accessible to anyone. He would constantly ask me about my product ideas. I learned a lot from our discussions.
Formal education isn’t the end-all-be-all when it comes to intellectual capability.
D
Darryl1958
Guest
Western civ courses are only important to the extent that western civilization is still deemed to be important and worth emulating. Outside of VDH, not many people want to make that case anymore. This is especially true of those who are actually taking western civ courses.
As long as western civ is deemed to be interesting trivia at most, and not all that critical for society at large, just one point of view of equal of even lesser importance than other non-western civs, it is hard to imagine how that higher degree is that critical either. Personally interesting though it may be, few people in these fields of study are making the case of why this is of importance to society as a whole and not just a private concern for the student of such things.
From what I hear, even many of the students aren’t much interested in doing the readings.
A business degree then might be the smarter road to take, if this is the case.
R
Raskolnikov
Guest
94086:
Anyway, I am a pessimist when it comes to the modern American youth, so I tend to believe that pretty much the only way you can get a young person to read a book is to put him in a room and force him to, and to test him on it afterward. Everything one learns in college isn’t supposed to be useful. But all students should at least be introduced to the idea of knowledge for its own sake, and even useless classes can be good mental excercise.
Some people can train themselves to do almost anything, without ever meeting a teacher or professor. There’s no real need for such people to go to college to get a degree. But most people, I happen to think, need a structured setting to prod them into learning things and developing skills. Self-discipline is not over-abundant in the youth these days. How do I know? In part, because even as I sit here typing this, I should be doing something else for a research project that I have been procrastinating on all week.
Certainly not. I personally like the movie “Good Will Hunting,” especially the scene where the main character, (if you haven’t seen it) a janitor who happens to be a mathematical genius with a photographic memory, confronts a Harvard graduate student parroting the lines of a textbook he read. Good movie.
Anyway, I am a pessimist when it comes to the modern American youth, so I tend to believe that pretty much the only way you can get a young person to read a book is to put him in a room and force him to, and to test him on it afterward. Everything one learns in college isn’t supposed to be useful. But all students should at least be introduced to the idea of knowledge for its own sake, and even useless classes can be good mental excercise.
Some people can train themselves to do almost anything, without ever meeting a teacher or professor. There’s no real need for such people to go to college to get a degree. But most people, I happen to think, need a structured setting to prod them into learning things and developing skills. Self-discipline is not over-abundant in the youth these days. How do I know? In part, because even as I sit here typing this, I should be doing something else for a research project that I have been procrastinating on all week.
R
Raskolnikov
Guest
Whether western civilization is worth emulating or not is one gigantic topic (the answer most often is some form of 'sometimes yes, sometimes not so much). But it is certainly worth studying if for no other reason than that we are western civilization and should no our past, in order also to better understand the prospects for out future. In the feild of history (which my history advisor describes euphemistically as ‘not a growing field’) there isn’t much will anymore to convince people that it is imperative to study history. But one professor of mine, rather old fashioned (the aforementioned advisor, a German history professor) still doggedly clings to the belief that history is the fundamental discpline that is necessary to understand all other.
Another field however (my other major as it happens), economics, is actually not only convinced of its paramount relevance to every person in modern society, but has actively, even aggressively seeked to expand its place in academia and society in general in recent years. It is certainly a growing discipline. And while one would have a hard time convincing a student that he needs to understand the history of western Europe, the current state of thngs adds to the list of reasons why everyone should learn basic economics and finance. There are few places other than the university where it will be particlarly convenient for them to be taught these subjects. And other useful skills, like foreign languages and mathematics, both of which are rather difficult to teach oneself.
Most students seem almost entirely apathetic to the readings, unfortunately. I personally have resolved not to get a business degree. A phd in economics is one route I’m considering, among a vouple other reasonably practical fields. There is a funny saying at my school though. Biomedical enginering (abbreviated BME) is a popular but very difficult major. It is often said that what BME really stands for is “business major eventually.”
S
Scott_Lafrance
Guest
Yes, and the good universities charge prices that are so prohibitively expensive that either one needs to be already wealthy to go or willing to go into debt to the tune of a quarter million dollars for a baccalaureate degree. Still, one does not need these facilities to acquire focused education. For example, one can purchase a Rosetta Stone language program for roughly $500 (less than the cost of one course at a community college) and be conversationally fluent in a language in less than 6 months. The same education at a community college would take 3 progressively advanced “courses” at a college at $500-$600 apiece plus $100 in books and materials. Self-paced home education: $500, college education: almost $2,000.
And regarding your comment “the best jobs require a degree” is false. Many of them only require some sort of professional certification. I am a Master Scheduler/EVM Analyst with a PMP Certification and make well over $100k a year. I am being considered as a project manager for one of our proposed bid for work, which will come with a promotion, raise and possibly a bonus. I do not have a degree. Many of the people I work with have professional certifications, not degrees. They either have Microsoft Systems Certified Engineering certifications, Cisco certificates, Java certificates, or .Net certificates.
S
Scott_Lafrance
Guest
In the movie (understanding that it is a movie) he wasn’t parroting lines. He actually demonstrated conversational mastery of the subject matter. It proves the point, big, fancy college degrees benefit big fancy colleges (and now the federal government who have taken over the student loan business).Certainly not. I personally like the movie “Good Will Hunting,” especially the scene where the main character, (if you haven’t seen it) a janitor who happens to be a mathematical genius with a photographic memory, confronts a Harvard graduate student parroting the lines of a textbook he read. Good movie.
Anyway, I am a pessimist when it comes to the modern American youth, so I tend to believe that pretty much the only way you can get a young person to read a book is to put him in a room and force him to, and to test him on it afterward. Everything one learns in college isn’t supposed to be useful. But all students should at least be introduced to the idea of knowledge for its own sake, and even useless classes can be good mental excercise.
Some people can train themselves to do almost anything, without ever meeting a teacher or professor. There’s no real need for such people to go to college to get a degree. But most people, I happen to think, need a structured setting to prod them into learning things and developing skills. Self-discipline is not over-abundant in the youth these days. How do I know? In part, because even as I sit here typing this, I should be doing something else for a research project that I have been procrastinating on all week.
J
jam070406
Guest
The majority of people that I know that went to college came out on the other end as liberal atheists too.
- Status