I want to ask what is the relationship between "maker of policy" and "people... have direction in life," but this skirts proper forum etiquette. To retreat back to education, I tend to think that much "higher education" has been in many ways overvalued on the economic scale. Education, too, then becomes not a means to an end but instead an "end product" in and of itself. I've known high school dropouts that were pretty darned smart and degreed persons that couldn't pour sand out of a boot with the instructions written on the heel.
I do believe,
People can be undervalued...This is not meant to be anything against graduates..
Someone said they are like a light house in the desert very bright and totally useless...I don't agree except for the first couple of years in the job..
A lot of people I know and help have dropped out at some point..
And they seem to be directed to the human scrap heap its very unfair.
What makes it worse is its getting to the point to stack shelves in a shop you have to have an NVQ in customer service.. an example of the policy maker and direction of people in life.
Regards
M. Gregg
People can be undervalued...This is not meant to be anything against graduates..
Someone said they are like a light house in the desert very bright and totally useless...I don't agree except for the first couple of years in the job..
A lot of people I know and help have dropped out at some point..
And they seem to be directed to the human scrap heap its very unfair.
What makes it worse is its getting to the point to stack shelves in a shop you have to have an NVQ in customer service.. an example of the policy maker and direction of people in life.
Regards
M. Gregg
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I went to university twice, about 30 years apart. Different city, different uni, different (but related) subject. I was shocked by the decline in standards. A Masters course today (i.e. 4th year undergraduate) covers topics at about the same level as 2nd year undergrad back then.Pano said:
Schools have changed too, In my day we started calculus around age 15. Today it is around age 17. Much less algebra and geometry. One university (York?) has long-term data on mathematical abilities of new students - over a 20 year period they found a 2-grade level of grade inflation, so a B in Maths of today is equivalent to a D back then.
I realise that there is always a temptation to say that things have deteriorated, but in the UK they definitely have. Even our government has now admitted it, although they might not realise just how bad it is. I think a couple of years ago the New Zealand government came to a similar realisation about their system.
There is a hypothesis linking education to birth and development of pre-frontal cortex suppressed by fear and anxiety. Things dramatically changed after it become illegal in US to give a birth outside of hospital. The society was recovering after some 600 years ago witch hunt, and education was gradually getting better and better...
http://ttfuture.org/files/2/members/esa_jcp_biology_culture.pdf
Like human body is made of many cells, the society is made of many human beings, one system.
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the Cold War - Russian A Bomb, Hydrogen Bomb, Sputnik - caused panic in US over public education system - lots of $, "new math", AP courses...
baby boom demographic bulge also required hiring new teachers with more recent credentials
but that was awhile ago - and not all of that was effective
baby boom demographic bulge also required hiring new teachers with more recent credentials
but that was awhile ago - and not all of that was effective
The underlying process is birth and development in atmosphere of fear and anxiety. People developed such a way are better prepared for survival, competition, but worse prepared for happiness and creativity. And we re-create this atmosphere for our children and grand-children. Fight-or-flight reflexes dominate in the modern society.
Even so, American culture as a whole seems to have a general suspicion of things related to academics, scholarship, or intellectual thought. A couple incarnations ago I worked with an engineer who had THREE versions of his business card: the one he used in the U.S. listed his name and corporate title; the one he used in Europe omitted the corporate title but included "PhD" after his name (Electrical Engineering from U.C. Berkley, as I recall); and the one he used in Japan listed both the corporate and academic credentials. (Or so he said - it was in Japanese characters.)
I was saddened to the point of tears in the spring of 2011 when, in two separate and unrelated situations where people were chatting with graduating High School students about future plans, three individuals gave answers that amounted to, "Well, I really can't do anything useful so I'm going to college and major in business. Then I can be a manager."
Or, perhaps the problem isn't the over-valuation of higher education, but rather the under-valuation of particular kinds of knowledge and abilities.
I kept a copy of that over my desk when the U.S. Air Force had me running a tech school. The originator of that quote is rather interesting. John Gardner has to be recognized as a populist - yet he served as president of The Carnegie Foundation, as well as Secretary of HEW under President Lyndon Johnson (when the Federal involvement in U.S. public education expanded tremendously).
Dale
Not any more.
1. truth is whatever you want it to be.
2. intelligence is the ability to get away with things.
3. no need to remember anything, just pass the tests (which will give you any facts you need to answer the questions, such as formulas, and tell you which method to use to solve any problems).
4. still true
5. conform to the modern liberal consensus, and ensure you tick all the boxes in the rigid marking scheme.
1. truth is whatever you want it to be.
2. intelligence is the ability to get away with things.
3. no need to remember anything, just pass the tests (which will give you any facts you need to answer the questions, such as formulas, and tell you which method to use to solve any problems).
4. still true
5. conform to the modern liberal consensus, and ensure you tick all the boxes in the rigid marking scheme.
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