College Education Arms Race Bankrupting America

[Johnnyallstar]

It's actually a real mineral. They use it in high performance spark plugs, among other things.

Oh. Well, clearly my subject isn't earth science. Or, you know, chemistry. Still, that's a bit disappointing. It was far cooler when you named yourself after a mineral from the mining mini-game in ME2.

I know platinum is real (my wedding ring is made out of it) but what about palladium? Is that real too?

Yes, Palladium is a rare earth metal. If you watched Iron Man, his power source used palladium.

 

[xDarc]

For someone complaining that this forum is too young and immature, you've acted quite petty by whining that people aren't jumping to respond to a disjointed rant.

This was up here for over 12 hours. That's pathetic on any forum.

 

[lacktheknack]

Seriously escapist, your forum foo is weak. It only took ten years for people to forget how to post without being prompted by a dumb ass question?

Do u like pokee man? Maybe that's a better thread.


Christ I need a new forum. You're too young.

Maybe we don't have anything to say.

Maybe we got turned off at the first line.

Maybe we didn't like your method of EMPHASIS.

Maybe we don't like how confrontational you are.

In fact, your confrontational attitude is what sparked this post, which doesn't address your original question at all.

(Mostly because I don't have anything to say about it. I can get a mindless thirteen-dollars-per-hour job easily WITHOUT a degree, the degree is for getting me something that pays in the $30-40+ range. And because computers are awesome.)

 

[xDarc]

What bothers me more than all that which you said is that our elementary and high schools have just become one protracted college entry process.

It's pretty much a mandatory part of the culture now, and everyone knows if you don't go you better have like six kids and get that guvmint money; because you're never gonna make shit.

It's pretty disgusting.

 

[Catalyst6]

Seriously escapist, your forum foo is weak. It only took ten years for people to forget how to post without being prompted by a dumb ass question?

Do u like pokee man? Maybe that's a better thread.


Christ I need a new forum. You're too young.

Or it could be the first line.

I'm not gonna do a well researched thread...

Thats not a good start. At all.

I'll second this. Any opinion piece that starts with such a line is bound to be pretty off. Case in point.

OT: Congratulations, you've realized that a lot of what you learn in university is does not directly impact your career. New ground has clearly been broken. Me, I've taken sociology, world politics, and religion classes as gen-eds for a biochem degree.

But you know what? The fact that they're not in my main line of study does not make them worthless. I took the information that I learned from those courses and use it in my daily life. English classes are an absolute necessity as well, I won't comment on my own writing but the skills of my peers leaves a lot to be desired, let's just leave it at that.

Do you know why people look for college graduates when finding workers? I'll give you a hint: it's not for what you learned in school. It's a well-established idea that you learn most of your job while doing it. No, what they're looking for is the drive to work for your job, to sit down day after day and study things that you may never use. It's the ability to perform under stress, and to turn work in on time.

Your system of teaching only for what you need in the next five minutes will breed the kind of person that you can expect from a college dropout: someone who only does the bare minimum and is completely against education for education's sake. That is to say, it'll breed the intellectual equivalents of the machines that make auto parts.

 

[lacktheknack]

I'm not gonna do a well researched thread...

Thats not a good start. At all.

At least I'm honest.

Then don't be surprised when no one jumps on board.

 

[Bara_no_Hime]

Yes, Palladium is a rare earth metal. If you watched Iron Man, his power source used palladium.

Ah yes.

Well, then again, both D&D and X-Men talk about adamantine, but that doesn't mean it's real, so just hearing about it in Iron Man wouldn't necessarily have convinced me it was real, even if I had remembered it being mentioned there.

 

[xDarc]

The problem isn't the cost of education, as the cost is a result from a greater problem. The true culprit is that we have allowed our standards to fall, which means it now takes longer and longer for us to properly educate the young minds of mush, and time means money.

In my opinion, high school (or college, in some places of the world) should be where basic skills should be taught, and the university level is where specialization happens. There is no excuse for rudimentary maths like basic algebra to be taught at the university level.

This is spot on as was the rest of your post. You're the only reason I pretty much even bothered to start replying to this thread.

 

[xDarc]

I'm not gonna do a well researched thread...

Thats not a good start. At all.

At least I'm honest.

Then don't be surprised when no one jumps on board.

You do it. I don't have time for this shit.

282 billion dollars in 2002. I'd wager it's been hundreds of billions every year for decades. The point is, maybe you should just try to wrap your head around the concept before people start expecting fucking spreadsheets.

P.S.

Which no one by the way has done. So I'm glad I didn't waste my time. I've been posting on the web long enough to know not to waste time on well researched threads for people who don't appreciate them. If someone gets the general idea, they will participate. If someone doesn't- the thread will just sit for 12 hours until I make a snide remark, and then thread will become something else.

*rolls eyes*

 

[Dags90]

This was up here for over 12 hours. That's pathetic on any forum.

In those 12 hours it remained a long winded and disjointed rant. Would you honestly be less peeved if someone did respond, but only to comment on poor formatting?

I know platinum is real (my wedding ring is made out of it) but what about palladium? Is that real too?

It's in the platinum family, next to osmium. I think it's used in catalytic converters. Tritium is also real (From Spiderman 2).

 

[Johnnyallstar]

What bothers me more than all that which you said is that our elementary and high schools have just become one protracted college entry process.

It's pretty much a mandatory part of the culture now, and everyone knows if you don't go you better have like six kids and get that guvmint money; because you're never gonna make shit.

It's pretty disgusting.

Not true at all. That implies that if you don't go to a university that you have absolutely no ambition, dreams, or goals in life. There are plenty of people who have had successful lives due to their determination to succeed and the freedom to do so, all without a so called higher education. Many mechanics didn't get degrees, and can make incredible amounts of money. Plumbers? Contract construction workers? Are you kidding me? Truckers can make insane amounts of money, and you don't need a college education to do so.

Also, it is very important to note exactly what defines success. I don't want to be insulting, but you're pretty myopic about the whole situation.

 

[xDarc]

OT: Congratulations, you've realized that a lot of what you learn in university is does not directly impact your career. New ground has clearly been broken.

My case in point for not doing well researched threads: you. You missed the point entirely... and considering it was in the title...

 

[xDarc]

I don't want to be insulting, but you're pretty myopic about the whole situation.

I live in Detroit. It's pretty much really like that here.

P.S.

And no we're not backwards, we're actually ahead of the curve. Detroit is what the rest of the country is going to feel like in 15 years.

 

[Bara_no_Hime]

And this.....makes you look like a pretentious douche. Just because you think your intellectual conversation is above some of the people on the internet doesn't mean you are above everyone.

See, I didn't find the OP particularly intellectual. More like anti-intellectual, the whole "we don't need college" thing.

Believe me, I wish public education was better. Then maybe I wouldn't have to teach huge ass classrooms full of college students what a complete sentence looks like. No, I am not kidding - that is my job 4 days a week. Also, how to use commas properly.

None of that makes college bad. It just means that college is doing what high school is supposed to be doing, and that's annoying.

 

[Catalyst6]

I know platinum is real (my wedding ring is made out of it) but what about palladium? Is that real too?

It's in the platinum family, next to osmium. I think it's used in catalytic converters. Tritium is also real (From Spiderman 2).

It's kind of a wonderball for organic chemistry, it catalyzes a lot of difficult organic reactions. That's how I know it, at least.

EDIT:

And this.....makes you look like a pretentious douche. Just because you think your intellectual conversation is above some of the people on the internet doesn't mean you are above everyone.

See, I didn't find the OP particularly intellectual. More like anti-intellectual, the whole "we don't need college" thing.

Believe me, I wish public education was better. Then maybe I wouldn't have to teach huge ass classrooms full of college students what a complete sentence looks like. No, I am not kidding - that is my job 4 days a week. Also, how to use commas properly.

None of that makes college bad. It just means that college is doing what high school is supposed to be doing, and that's annoying.

You teach English at a college level? Please allow me to formally apologize on the behalf of my general age bracket. We know not what we write. More to the point, most know not what a semicolon is.

 

[Bara_no_Hime]

snip

Again, off topic - OP, is that Lita Alexander from Babylon 5 in your icon there? Cause, if so, again, props. Very cool.

Or is it just the same actress in a different roll? If so... never mind.

 

[Death on Trapezoids]

Counter point to the exploding nursing job: these same baby boomers are getting old, and they're gonna need someone to care for them. Might be the logic behind some of these people.

I respond with an equally unresearched rant:

In today's colleges, passing grades are achieved as much by, if not more by, social skills as they are by just work. College students get the previous year's tests and exams from siblings, friends, and other such networks. Perhaps they are just adept at schmoozing the administration. They know exactly what to study, and that's all they study, in some cases not even learning to do the job the class is supposed to prepare them for. At best, the professor "changes cirriculum" by running a 2-3 year rotation of tests, tests which are kept on file by the plethora of fraternities and sororities inherent to the college environment. The professor just sees way too many kids with As, concludes that his/her course isn't hard enough, and assigns more busywork. Students lacking this social network, or students that want to pass the class on intellect, are left at a disadvantage.

You go to college to learn how to do your job, not how to play the freaking system.

 

[Catalyst6]

OT: Congratulations, you've realized that a lot of what you learn in university is does not directly impact your career. New ground has clearly been broken.

My case in point for not doing well researched threads: you. You missed the point entirely... and considering it was in the title...

So either we shift back to small business and break the cycle, or we make cheap training centers that give candidates only the skills they need, and they perform better than college grads enough for employers to notice. I got nothing.

*ahem*.

Nice cherry picking, by the way. Never mind the rest of my note, zone in on the sarcasm.

 

[Johnnyallstar]

I don't want to be insulting, but you're pretty myopic about the whole situation.

I live in Detroit. It's pretty much really like that here.

AHA! Now we get to the crux of the issue! Detroit has been the poster child for every destructive progressive idea of the last century. I feel your pain, though, I live near Cleveland, which isn't far behind Detroit on the misery list. The governmental programs that have been instilled in Detroit have killed that city, and destroyed it's culture.

For the last six decades, the entire city has been controlled by political ideologues who have destroyed a once great and proud American city in the name of their ideology. Just look at Flint. A tragedy, all produced from the top down.

But rest assured, all is not lost. You are near the epicenter of the worst, and I have to say that all over the country there is still hope.