College is an extension of our childhood

in #college6 years ago


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I made a previous post discussing college as a for profit business. In this post, I want to talk a little more about the effects of college from the perspective of the college student.
College does a very poor job of preparing students for the real world. How?

Let me preface by saying that I do not believe adolescence exist. It is a modern day invention. Or as I believe, a modern day excuse to extend childhood; the state where a person is unable to fend for himself/herself. Unable to make independent decisions due to lack of knowledge and experience. Little to no practical skills to offer in a competitive job market.

That is the life that college offers to students. It is not one of responsibility. Or excellence. According to the book "Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses" by Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa, when students are in college, they do not even spend the time in college to study,

Studying is far from the focus of students’ “free time” (i.e., time outside of class): only twelve hours a week are spent studying. Combining the hours spent studying with the hours spent in classes and labs, students in our sample spent less than one-fifth (16 percent) of their reported time each week on academic pursuits. Even if we focus only on the school / work week and assume that all academic activities occur within 120 hours between Monday and Friday, students would still be spending only 23 percent of their time on class and studying. This is not an anomaly—even at selective institutions, where one would expect students to spend more time on academic pursuits, other researchers have found that students spend only approximately 30 percent of their time from Monday to Friday attending classes and labs or studying.

Not to mention that colleges do not even improve student's skills. From the same source,

More than 90 percent of employers rate written communication, critical thinking, and problem solving as “very important” for the job success of new labor market entrants. At the same time, they note that only a small proportion of four-year college graduates excel in these skills: 16 percent excel in written communication and 28 percent in critical thinking / problem solving. In another recent survey, commissioned by the Association of American Colleges and Universities, employers rated only 26 percent of college graduates as being very well prepared in writing, and 22 percent as being very well prepared to think critically

So what is exactly is College then? It is no longer a place for higher education, not a place for decent job training, but a 4 year daycare center. Most people are doing anything and everything else aside from studying whether it is partying or protesting. What makes it worse than other forms of education is that colleges can cost more than $100K in tuition which is worth a separate discussion.

There are valuable lessons to be learned from the real world that you cannot learn in the out dated puritan college classroom.

Success in the real world doesn't come scoring high on standardized exams. It won't come from racking up debt through loans and reckless spending. There are no second place trophies. No safe spaces. Protesting and adding hashtags won't solve your problems.

In the real world, there are going to be problems that you cannot solve. You will experience discrimination. You will experience failure. You will see the complexity and difficulty of forming professional relationships. You will have to learn how to market and brand yourself instead of using your alma mater. You will have to learn how to manage bills and manage budgets. You will have to learn to take responsibility for your own life. Learn to adapt and educate yourself. You will have to become both the teacher and the student. You will learn to own your problems and solve them. And finally, you will learn that the greatest gift in life is the one that you give not the one that you get.

But that is not what college is about. And that is why it fails.

Since high school and college both fail at teaching student valuable real life lessons, the result is that from the age of 13 to age of 22 (or later for graduate students), kids still remain kids.

And by the time they step out into the real world, they are making mistakes that they could have made and learned from at 16. Now they are making those mistakes at 26. And then you won't be an adult until 30. All that time you wasted being "enlightened" at school? You will never get that it back.

College does nothing but exasperate the problem of the education system today. It hasn't seen a real reform in more than 200 years. The system is outdated and hasn't been able to adapt to this fast paced, technological world. But we can. Don't let college determine your place in society.

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That is nothing compared to the thousands people lost after 2017 bull run. Besides I don't really care about profit at this point. Just trying to bring people to my blog.

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Thanks. I'll keep this in mind. BTW, I know about the bots. I am only concerned with comments now which you did respond so thanks.

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15 years ago I was saying a lot of the same things. Few people listened, and they would say stuff like "College is proving you can accomplish something", or "People need the guided learning". Now, I think most people see its a scam. I also felt like I was being treated like a child the whole time. It was a more irritating experience than educational. I am still annoyed by it!

The college bubble will burst. The debt is growing and there aren't enough good white collar salaried jobs to pay it off.

Leaving college would not only be a good moral decision, but also a good financial one.

I agree on all accounts. Still some people in my generation (X) talk about going back to school. I ask what the hell for? Many times they do not have a good answer. Younger people are more skeptical. I am going to do something very rogue in about a year. I am going to move to Thailand and Vietnam for about 3 months, and spend 4 hours day improving my programming skills for robotics, several hours a week on business subjects, and then maybe another 20 on AI. Im actually going to develop something while I am there, that will be my proof of ability. Put myself back through MY OWN school. Better than theirs I tell ya! University Scum!

Still some people in my generation (X) talk about going back to school. I ask what the hell for? Many times they do not have a good answer.

The salaried worker rarely has the time to educate himself, improve his talents and expand his skillset. The job already takes up most of his day. Graduate school is an easy way for the salary man to improve his resume without doing real work; just read this, write about that, and then take an exam. While the degree will not help him skill wise, simple having it on his resume may be enough for him to grab that elusive promotion. I know people with graduate degree still earning entry level pay.

Younger people cannot afford to take that kind of financial risk. The opportunity cost is too high. Would you put your money in crypto or put it in a graduate degree? I am leaning towards crypto.

I agree Kids and young people today have laptops and I-phones to use in there communication but they are not taught or instructed how to communicate face to face out in the world nothing against young millennials they just are not taught any social & communication skills let alone any self reliance without a laptop. My grand children think I am a little weird but they would probably be able to tie there own hook on some fishing line and light a campfire safely so we can cook it for lunch. One is only just 6 and has been challenge with health issues since birth but he know enough to get his life jacket on when we go in a boat or water vacuum the pool and he brings grampa's for him too. He has a good safety attitude and became very upset when my daughter & son-in-law took him on a ferry boat ride. He finally settled down when my daughter ask a purser to show him were the life jackets are kept, and told him he would be one of the first to get one in an emergency situation. My point is try to drag your children away from campus and the parties and teach them manors, skills that you know as a parent or a grandparent. you never know when it my make life better for you and them and don't be afraid to show them some tough Love, especially getting them away from the parties they will only learn how to drink alcohol and deal with hangovers unless they go to Staxxxcks college they can learn a second language just ordering a coffee.

Face to face interaction is so important to learn. The problem with school is that in many ways, it is a prison. You can be awkward and the person or people you are talking to cannot run away. So you will have multiple opportunities to salvage a bad situation. You will not get those chances in real life. When you mess up, people have the freedom to easily walk away from you.

Yes you are probably a good judge of peoples body language and attitudes when working around them and you hit the nail on the head about having multiple opportunities to solve problems face to face. I find it hard to solve any issues with government services, banking and business account online and over the phone, because it is a marathon of time that you don't have to text all the little details of what you are trying to solve with a rep. Then when you are totally exhausted and frustrated they will send a tech personal to your location and they confirm its broken and 2 days from now they will be back with a new modem or new hardware. great! When that happens to me that is why I am off line for a couple days. So being a newbee at this I am happy I found an ally to consort with.
Being an aged person I was a young mechanic in an automotive Transmissions repair shop I was taught how to diagnose, and quote an estimate to customers face to face and using a few simple testing tools and test operating the vehicle my mentor taught me how not only to talk to people on a respectful level, we were always accurate or slightly lower with the estimates. The only complaint we had is from the hot rodders that they wanted the transmission to shift more solid so they could lay rubber every time the automatic shifted a gear, It took a 5 minute adjustment and small penlight screwdriver, and also a courtesy warning that we could set back when they were tired of buy new rear tires or drive train part and some came back and admitted that they should have listened before they damaged everything behind our repaired or rebuilt transmission.
All in all those were the days when we learned some integrity, honesty and pride in our everyday living. These days I have to get online and start a chat with a rep. my cell phone is my tool box. Don't get me wrong there is a lot of good people in these rep chat center I just have to pick up my texting and typing skills to keep up with the world. I still like to meet people face to face I just feel better when I see a smile on there face. Thank you for listening to an old die hard, try and have a wonderful day and reply with little tips for me please just keep them simple. they are appreciated

Totally agree with this article! Currently I'm going to the college :D Good job, keep it up!

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