Alpha Centauri 2

Community => Recreation Commons => Topic started by: Dio on April 09, 2016, 04:26:05 AM

Title: How much do you value education?
Post by: Dio on April 09, 2016, 04:26:05 AM

I suppose the title illustrates the topic well? What do you consider the ideal level of education for the average American in the foreseeable future? I consider the fact that it has become almost necessary to have a post secondary education in our society to catch a decent job.

Title: Re: How much do you value education?
Post by: Mart on April 09, 2016, 05:43:31 AM

! No longer available (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YR5ApYxkU-U#)

Title: Re: How much do you value education?
Post by: Valka on April 09, 2016, 07:00:16 AM

As someone who learned to read at age 4, has been a life-long reader and learner, and who has been a teacher, I value having as much education as possible. There can never be too much, unless it fosters the attitude that practical knowledge is valueless.

Title: Re: How much do you value education?
Post by: Lorizael on April 09, 2016, 01:58:07 PM

According to the balance on my student loans, a lot.

Title: Re: How much do you value education?
Post by: Rusty Edge on April 09, 2016, 05:54:58 PM

Undergraduate College and vocational education for the average American.

I'd like to see more graduate degrees and a biotech explosion, but there is so much public resistance to pioneering developments, that I don't hold out much hope for the USA being the world leader in this field for long.

Title: Re: How much do you value education?
Post by: Buster's Uncle on April 09, 2016, 06:10:28 PM

I've already said my piece on this - college isn't for everyone, but most people can be distinctly improved by being less ignorant.

Title: Re: How much do you value education?
Post by: Yitzi on April 10, 2016, 12:09:20 PM

Undergraduate/vocational.  College isn't for everyone, but either college or vocational (including business, the arts, etc) is (well, except for rare exceptions who are just mentally disabled).

Title: Re: How much do you value education?
Post by: Lorizael on April 10, 2016, 03:30:44 PM

I don't have a strong opinion on how much schooling people should get. My stance is that whatever schooling we do require of the population, the goal of it (or one goal, anyway) should be to instill a love of learning and thinking. Then see where people go from there.

Title: Re: How much do you value education?
Post by: Buster's Uncle on April 10, 2016, 07:40:32 PM

Again, most people can be distinctly improved by being less ignorant.

You can't cure stupid, but ignorance is another matter - provided the stupid ain't overwhelming.

Title: Re: How much do you value education?
Post by: Unorthodox on April 10, 2016, 08:08:26 PM

Quote from: Yitzi on April 10, 2016, 12:09:20 PM

Undergraduate/vocational.  College isn't for everyone, but either college or vocational (including business, the arts, etc) is (well, except for rare exceptions who are just mentally disabled).

Guess that makes me amongst the mentally disabled.  Barely graduated High School, and frankly would have been better off skipping the senior year, taking a GED and entering the workforce for all the good I derived from that senior year (aside from social aspects not related to the actual learning).  Bored out of my mind by the most advanced courses available, I quit going to class and lost all desire for College. 

Folks who know me are generally surprised at the lack of formal education, and there's no doubt I've been shunned because of it.  I've yet to see anything to make me believe the piece of paper from any school means a damn thing other than some arbitrary check box on applications. 

Title: Re: How much do you value education?
Post by: Buster's Uncle on April 10, 2016, 08:13:28 PM

But there's the other side - the status thing.  How to guess your career trajectory WITH the arbitrary check box checked?

Title: Re: How much do you value education?
Post by: Unorthodox on April 10, 2016, 08:20:29 PM

I'd rather see it removed as a status symbol, myself.  Or at least for the love of god, let people test out of the entire thing if they can.  It's little more than a cash cow as it stands. 

Title: Re: How much do you value education?
Post by: Buster's Uncle on April 10, 2016, 09:06:14 PM

Testing out, I totally agree with.

College made me a better-rounded person, but I dunno that it made me $60,000 better-rounded...

Title: Re: How much do you value education?
Post by: Dio on April 10, 2016, 09:09:55 PM

I know some schools offer AP tests that, with a high enough score on the tests, allow people to skip one or more courses in the calculus sequence. The schools in my area also offer another AP English that allow students to skip the freshmen undergraduate courses.

Title: Re: How much do you value education?
Post by: Buster's Uncle on April 10, 2016, 09:27:08 PM

Uno and I have in common that we're more self-educated than anything else - just, I have the paper and he doesn't.  Honestly, the main thing all school did for me after they taught me to read was provide access to books.

But they DID make me study things I'd be totally ignorant of now, otherwise...

Title: Re: How much do you value education?
Post by: Unorthodox on April 10, 2016, 10:19:49 PM

Quote from: Dio on April 10, 2016, 09:09:55 PM

I know some schools offer AP tests that, with a high enough score on the tests, allow people to skip one or more courses in the calculus sequence. The schools in my area also offer another AP English that allow students to skip the freshmen undergraduate courses.

I tested out the AP Calculus my Junior year, and found myself bored to tears with the early college courses of physics and chemistry that followed my senior year (both of which amounted to applying the Calculus I had learned, and I had no trouble making the connection that some seemed to).  Testing every Friday accounted the majority of the grade in each class.  It took me a month to decide I would only go on Friday to either class, and passed both courses (so in a way tested out), but would have been barred from graduation based on lack of attendance had I not been a student counselor and thus able to gain the requisite public service hours required to make up attendance at will.  I would have been better served being allowed to take the next calculus course, or better yet getting work release to move out of my parents house earlier.

I would admittedly benefit from an English course, but don't find it worth my time/money. 

Title: Re: How much do you value education?
Post by: Dio on April 10, 2016, 10:38:21 PM

I have very few comparsions upon which to compare the standards of various people because I had very limited contact with the public school system.

Title: Re: How much do you value education?
Post by: Lorizael on April 11, 2016, 02:08:48 AM

Having made a conscious effort to return to school, the biggest thing that school has taught me is what to learn. Even in college, you end up teaching yourself a lot of the material for any given course. The difference is that you learn it in a focused, systematic way that increases the odds of you knowing material relevant to whatever it is that you've decided to study. Total self-learning can be done, but you always run the risk of sending yourself down some useless dead end and not realizing it, or of learning only in a superficial way because you're unaware of how much you don't know.

Title: Re: How much do you value education?
Post by: Buster's Uncle on April 11, 2016, 09:45:41 PM

...I used to embarrass myself with the gaps in my education A LOT more often.  College cut way down on those moments - though reading on my own and thinking about it ever since has a great deal to do with that, too...