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Okay, if I'm being pedantic, it's because you forced me to.
All else equal, a society full of people with post-secondary degrees will benefit the general population, compared to one where only a small fraction have it.
This is so because, all else equal, those without the degrees tend to be less educated.
How's that for precise?
Why do you need to know about greek mythology to be good at electrical work?
I honestly think we will see a shift in the education format in the next decade. For an undergraduate education I think we need to start being more micro and less macro when it comes to education. With the free information available it doesn't make sense for me to spend 1-2k to learn about greek mythology if you are planning to go into psychology or computer science.
I think places like Coursera are on to something, where you receive a certificate of completion for a specific class and then you have a portfolio that you present to hiring managers instead of putting your BA on your resume. This way the hiring manager knows exactly what courses you took instead of just knowing you have a BA in Computer Science.
I don't think this will work for graduate level work, but I think it would be fine for undergraduate level work.
A macro type education made sense before the advent of the internet. Even in the 80s and 90s information wasn't as readily available as it is today. I think it is very possible to get educated in those elective type courses without having a formal instructor walk you through it. It also allows you to learn about what interests you, not just what is being offered that semester and in a time slot that you have available.
But to be completely honest 50-60% of society is really not interested in education for the sake of education, so forcing them to have a BA to compete becomes a hurdle for them to jump and not the gain in "education" you think it would be.
Uneducated people are dull. There's really no nicer way to put it. I truly dislike living amongst a bunch of dullards. And our government suffers because of an ignorant electorate. People aren't going to pull themselves up by their bootstraps educationally. They don't know, and they don't know that they don't know. So they'll plop down in front of the tube and wallow in reality television for lack of guided instruction. The people who will educate themselves because they are intellectually curious are the exception, not the rule.
Uneducated people are dull. There's really no nicer way to put it. I truly dislike living amongst a bunch of dullards. And our government suffers because of an ignorant electorate.
You missed my point then. People should be able to choose what they want to be educated in not forced into the structure of what a university is offering in a particular semester at a particular time, especially when it comes to electives. I am taking a class right now on unethical decision making in organizations. How many universities do you know that offer that?
Also you can't force education on people. All you end up with is people in debt that were decent enough at rote memorization for an afternoon. How much do you remember from your 1st semester freshman year elective?
I love the holier than thou attitude. I could call you dull as well because I am far more educated than you, but I reserve judgment because I don't know you.
We're not forcing education on people now, are we? A degree from a respectable school* has supplanted the high school diploma as the minimum standard for a productive life for a reason. Society has raised the bar. And, yes, it's just as important to know a little bit about Gilgamesh as it is to know a little bit about finance.
And yes, there was quite a bit of rote memorization in my past. But I can still rattle off the fifty states in alphabetical order and recite the entire Declaration of Independence (and many, many poems) because of it. That doesn't even count as a party trick, but it's information that I am glad to have learned.
For most people, Ozymandias is an episode of Breaking Bad. For me, it's a Shelly poem which I know by heart. (And I also know that it is also a Horace Smith poem which was part of a a poetry competition. We don't see much of that any more, now do we?)
* Even community colleges count as respectable. Any school which isn't a diploma mill.
We're not forcing education on people now, are we? A degree from a respectable school* has supplanted the high school diploma as the minimum standard for a productive life for a reason. Society has raised the bar. And, yes, it's just as important to know a little bit about Gilgamesh as it is to know a little bit about finance.
And yes, there was quite a bit of rote memorization in my past. But I can still rattle off the fifty states in alphabetical order and recite the entire Declaration of Independence (and many, many poems) because of it. That doesn't even count as a party trick, but it's information that I am glad to have learned.
For most people, Ozymandias is an episode of Breaking Bad. For me, it's a Shelly poem which I know by heart. (And I also know that it is also a Horace Smith poem which was part of a a poetry competition. We don't see much of that any more, now do we?)
* Even community colleges count as respectable. Any school which isn't a diploma mill.
I hope you learned the 50 states and the Declaration in middle school, not college. I had no clue that Ozymandias was a poem, I hate poetry. But I have an extreme love for finance and statistics. Do you know how to use Sharpe Ratios to calculate an efficient portfolio or use structural equation modeling to develop a construct valid measure of intelligence? Different people like different things. Requiring someone to take poetry that doesn't like poetry does nothing for them. You like poetry, good for you, I don't, even if I took a class in it I likely wouldn't remember that because I find it boring. I realize that people do like it, but again I don't feel the need to require you to take computational investing because I think that everyone should understand the power of compound interest (our society would be much better off).
I'm just curious as to how old you are. My guess is you are 40+ and grew up in a world with no access to free courses, wikipedia, youtube, etc. The world is different today and in all honesty having taught at a University for 5 years graduating with a BA does not mean you are educated today like it may have in the 20-25 years ago. I taught 2 & 3000 level classes and had several students that couldn't even write in properly structured sentences and this was at a large state university.
I'm old enough to know the proverb, "You can lead a horse to water..."
All the free Youtube courses in the digital world are absolutely no good to the person who does not watch them. Most people will not bootstrap their minds without some measure of prodding -- either the reward of a better career (and thus a better life) or simply being made to do so in primary school. Given the choice, most people will watch a Spiderman movie instead of Cosmos. They'll download music, but they won't download books.
PS -- And you mean to tell me that you don't know the lyrics to a single song? I can't imagine a world without poetry. It would be an awful place to live.
I'm old enough to know the proverb, "You can lead a horse to water..."
All the free Youtube courses in the digital world are absolutely no good to the person who does not watch them. Most people will not bootstrap their minds without some measure of prodding -- either the reward of a better career (and thus a better life) or simply being made to do so in primary school. Given the choice, most people will watch a Spiderman movie instead of Cosmos. They'll download music, but they won't download books.
PS -- And you mean to tell me that you don't know the lyrics to a single song? I can't imagine a world without poetry. It would be an awful place to live.
You are confusing me. You said earlier that you weren't implying we should force higher education on people, yet you are basically saying you need to tell them what they need to learn because they won't do it on their own. Are you a believer in required college degrees? If not, I don't understand your point. It seems like you are talking about Highschool type stuff in a college discussion.
As a fellow millenial, I couldn't agree more. I did not go to a top university and graduate with honors just so that I can work for $10/hour. Yes, I actually had some airhead recruiter offering me an "accounting job" that paid $10/hour in freaking Downtown Los Angeles. That's f***ing insulting; I made more than that per hour with my p/t college job and I didn't even do squat.
By the way, I think having kids given today's economic climate is one of the most asinine things one can do. Automation, outsourcing, and competition from cheap global labor means kids today will have almost no chance of landing a decent paying job.
Keep your head up. It's sucks right now. I feel bad when people say kids in their early 20's are lazy and unmotivated. Well it's hard to be motivated when you're stuck in a sh*t job, making no money and have tens of thousands of dollars in student loan debt hanging over your head. Not to mention the majority of jobs these kids have are dead end, so no matter what effort they put in there's no upward movement.
What kills me personally, is my parents drilled it into my head that I couldn't get a good job without a degree and here I have two degrees and am interviewing for less money than what I made babysitting as a 16 year-old.
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