All Things
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When Education Becomes a Business. . . One of the important side effects of the Occupy Wall Street movement was the extensive publicity given to the large debts our students carry to pay for their education. One of the causes of the steep increase...
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Do you know how to improve our schools? Bill Gates knows. Yes, Bill Gates who gave us Windows – well, he did not exactly give it to us. After all, he ended up the world’s richest man and we are stuck with Windows. He has now distanced himself from...
- Going To School To Make Money?
Everyone knows that money is very important. Everyone equally believes that "money does not buy happiness." But many people, including many"important" people, do not understand that, however important money is, a lot of things are much more important....
- Things Money Can't Buy
In his remarks about education, last week, Pres. Obama offered support for the idea of paying teachers more if their students had higher scores on standardized tests like MCAS. Educational reformers have recommended merit pay as a method for improving...
- Roosevelt University: Diversity And Social Justice
On December 13, 2013, I attended the winter Commencement ceremonies at Roosevelt University in Chicago. As a new member of the University’s Board of Trustees, it was my first such event at Roosevelt; the Board had met the day before. I have,...
All Things
Going to school and getting an education.
It used to be that an education was what you went to school for. But those days are long gone. Today parents pay good money for their kids to go to college in order for them to get a better job. You hear that from politicians, from the president on down, as well as from college presidents and deans and other people whom we call "educators."
Colleges have become training schools for jobs. Every year more colleges cancel their general education courses and substitute job training programs. Students take less English and literature, they learn little history or social science. Forget philosophy. Students graduate knowing little about the world they live in.
So employers should be really happy because colleges are trying to provide good future employees for them.
But it is not working out that way. A recent article in the Chronicle for Higher Education records the complaints of many employers that today's college graduates are not ready to take a job. One employer is quoted as saying: "They don't need more technical training. They need to learn how to think." Other employer complaints are more specific: College students who may have knowledge of all sorts of technical subjects, they say, are not able to give a good oral or written presentation of a set of facts. The communication skills of today's college graduates – even if they are Communication Majors – are really deficient. If they are asked to present a proposal they are unable to marshal reasonable arguments in defense of it.
In short, they lack the skills of a well-educated person. They may have received useful training for a specific job. But they did not get an education.
But an education is what many employers are looking for.
Perhaps, parents should ask for their money back.
-
When Education Becomes a Business. . . One of the important side effects of the Occupy Wall Street movement was the extensive publicity given to the large debts our students carry to pay for their education. One of the causes of the steep increase...
-
Do you know how to improve our schools? Bill Gates knows. Yes, Bill Gates who gave us Windows – well, he did not exactly give it to us. After all, he ended up the world’s richest man and we are stuck with Windows. He has now distanced himself from...
- Going To School To Make Money?
Everyone knows that money is very important. Everyone equally believes that "money does not buy happiness." But many people, including many"important" people, do not understand that, however important money is, a lot of things are much more important....
- Things Money Can't Buy
In his remarks about education, last week, Pres. Obama offered support for the idea of paying teachers more if their students had higher scores on standardized tests like MCAS. Educational reformers have recommended merit pay as a method for improving...
- Roosevelt University: Diversity And Social Justice
On December 13, 2013, I attended the winter Commencement ceremonies at Roosevelt University in Chicago. As a new member of the University’s Board of Trustees, it was my first such event at Roosevelt; the Board had met the day before. I have,...