What do you think is the primary purpose of college — to give students a general education or to prepare them for specific careers?
7 comments:
Anonymous
said...
Right now it is to catch them up from high school and then when that is done to give them abroad education with lots of choices so they can decide where to put their energies and what graduate program would work for them. Graduating college is like graduating high school was in the old days. Need a profession that will help you make a living. I also favor vocational school in conjunction with a 2 year college.
I always considered undergraduate school a venue for expanding one's understanding of the world and its components...sort of a rounding out and opening up place. While it's a place to lay the groundwork for your chosen path, graduate school is where the hard core, career specific learning should go on. That said, it's a different world out there now and sadly it's being used to catch up on basic skills like Madgew said. With funding cuts and a tough economy, she's also right about it becoming like a vocational school. My fear is that we will have no place left for the stuff that makes us whole.
I would say a general education, learning how to think, to question what they read ("it was on the internet so it must be true"), meeting people who are different/think differently from themselves, etc.
However, if you know you want to be a doctor/programmer, etc then go for the basics in your field and get going! Me? I had no idea so general was good. I took classes I had never thought of and discovered topics I really enjoyed.
College is like real life, with training wheels. You still get a little wiggle room to make mistakes and people are likely to still bail you out. College (undergrad I assume) CAN be a stepping stone to a specific career, as in "pre-med" etc. but I think rounding out one's education is the real point. Growth in many senses of the word. For many people, it is the first time they have the freedom to be their true selves, or to figure out what that even means. This likely explains why most students change their majors at least once and why many people experiment with - well - lots of things. :)
My oldest child just started her second year of college. She changed her major a few weeks ago. Her dad keeps telling her she's not going to to be able to make any money in either of the two majors (music and art). I keep telling her that she doesn't have to decide what she is going to do for the rest of her life when she's only 19 years old!
Bonnie, Go to this website and look at the discussion by a college professor about college and what it means. It is just what we are talking about here.
Folks, when you get to http://ipinion.me/, then you have to click on the column entitled "Fixing Higher Education and Restoring the Value of the Bachelor’s Degree." (The URL didn't change when I clicked over there.) The article includes this:
Sadly, it is pretty clear that far too many college degrees aren’t worth the paper on which they are printed. ... In other words, significantly more than half of college degree holders in the United States lack the “critical thinking, writing and problem-solving skills needed in today’s workplaces.”
7 comments:
Right now it is to catch them up from high school and then when that is done to give them abroad education with lots of choices so they can decide where to put their energies and what graduate program would work for them. Graduating college is like graduating high school was in the old days. Need a profession that will help you make a living. I also favor vocational school in conjunction with a 2 year college.
I always considered undergraduate school a venue for expanding one's understanding of the world and its components...sort of a rounding out and opening up place. While it's a place to lay the groundwork for your chosen path, graduate school is where the hard core, career specific learning should go on. That said, it's a different world out there now and sadly it's being used to catch up on basic skills like Madgew said. With funding cuts and a tough economy, she's also right about it becoming like a vocational school. My fear is that we will have no place left for the stuff that makes us whole.
I would say a general education, learning how to think, to question what they read ("it was on the internet so it must be true"), meeting people who are different/think differently from themselves, etc.
However, if you know you want to be a doctor/programmer, etc then go for the basics in your field and get going! Me? I had no idea so general was good. I took classes I had never thought of and discovered topics I really enjoyed.
Jeannie commented on Facebook this morning:
College is like real life, with training wheels. You still get a little wiggle room to make mistakes and people are likely to still bail you out. College (undergrad I assume) CAN be a stepping stone to a specific career, as in "pre-med" etc. but I think rounding out one's education is the real point. Growth in many senses of the word. For many people, it is the first time they have the freedom to be their true selves, or to figure out what that even means. This likely explains why most students change their majors at least once and why many people experiment with - well - lots of things. :)
My oldest child just started her second year of college. She changed her major a few weeks ago. Her dad keeps telling her she's not going to to be able to make any money in either of the two majors (music and art). I keep telling her that she doesn't have to decide what she is going to do for the rest of her life when she's only 19 years old!
http://ipinion.me/
Bonnie, Go to this website and look at the discussion by a college professor about college and what it means. It is just what we are talking about here.
Thanks, Madge.
Folks, when you get to http://ipinion.me/, then you have to click on the column entitled "Fixing Higher Education and Restoring the Value of the Bachelor’s Degree." (The URL didn't change when I clicked over there.) The article includes this:
Sadly, it is pretty clear that far too many college degrees aren’t worth the paper on which they are printed. ... In other words, significantly more than half of college degree holders in the United States lack the “critical thinking, writing and problem-solving skills needed in today’s workplaces.”
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