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star-sailor (profile) wrote,
on 8-27-2008 at 12:18am
Current mood: blah
Music: Albi - Flight of the Conchords
Subject: A Rant For Days Of New
A discussion between Jayne and I about college, and how neither of us are ready to attend a formal university, how both of us see the need to, and how both of us are fishy at the idea of the college's actual necessity. Also about our possible careers.
This is my reply to her.





And I agree entirely with what you said. Like, that's the whole conundrum. I've been trying to think of this from all sides, and though there are a lot of things to consider, none offer any well founded answers.

1) The US American Education System:
In my opinion, it's defunct. Back pre-Cold War, the US educational institution was completely different, for primary, secondary, and post-secondary education entirely. We were based on a retention style of learning. Now adays, we're based on comprehension. Meaning, back then, we learned for the sake of learning, and acquiring knowledge to better our life and careers. Now, we're acquiring knowledge to be used on a educationally test, which will (supposedly) tell us how educated we are. What the government doesn't seem to realize is that we're not actually learning anything, and any hair-brained psychologist could explain quite bluntly that if someone studies for a statistical multiple-choice test, all the information they studied will be lost as soon as they finish the course. That's why the US is becoming so uneducated that we're starting to rival the education system of Mexico. o.O

2) Ibi Kaslik:
Ibi Kaslik is who I want to be. She's a Canadian author who wrote Skinny, is a freelance journalist, and is working on her second novel. She's got quite a nice life up in... Toronto, I think, and is making plenty of money to have a successfully life. She also an artistic novelist, and has a great vision. SHE went to college; she graduated with a creative writing degree from Concordia University, which has educated some of the best modern Canadian writers. I know that her degree helped her get her journalistic job, but did it benefit her as an author? If she didn't go to college, would she have still been a successful author? Hmm hmmmm.

3) The Value of the Contemporary College Degree:
Let's face facts: a degree is a piece of paper. This goes almost hand in hand with the difficulty the US has with its educational system, but thankfully, the US American public has NOTICED. The fact is, the power of being college-educated has weakened over the past few decades. Everyone's college educated these days. Everyone requires a college education. Some people at McDonalds can't even apply for a managerial position without a college degree in something. Which is just sad, hahaha. So now that everyone is "smart," and has their degrees, the supply and demand thing is all out of whack. There are tons of people who are equally educated, and not enough jobs for them all. Having a degree just means you spent a lot of money to earn some paper with a signature on it, and not a lot else. But since it's the requirement of every job these days, being without one puts you at a severe disadvantaged. Obama is trying to pursue reforms in college education, but that'll affected our kids, not us. So for now, leaving all of that hypothetical jargon the politicians are discussing it, our generation - as far as our career competitions are concerned - is screwed, hahaha.
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