Old guy, back in school update. Sad day

[Tucker]

I couldn't think of an alternate title as the title has no bearing to the thread subject.


http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x5379950

Old guy, back in school update. Sad day
 Edited on Thu Apr-02-09 09:10 PM by MichaelHarris
Washington State University is facing the deepest budget cuts it has ever seen. The Arts Humanities well see the most pain. Today teachers, students, and families met on the mall and marched to the President's office. For those who know me, know I never move without a camera. I'll start with the march. you would think art instructors would make better signs, I saw some made with pizza boxes. On a high note, I'll end with African dance in the Student Center. Art's highs and lows.

customerserviceguy  (1000+ posts)      Thu Apr-02-09 09:36 PM
Response to Original message
2. May I ask
 where you think the jobs are going to be for those arts graduates? Is it possible that we already have plenty of people with those skills in our society today?
 

Lydia Leftcoast  (1000+ posts)      Thu Apr-02-09 09:43 PM
Response to Reply #2
4. The jobs aren't the point
 Until 25 years ago, companies gladly hired liberal arts graduates. They prospered, because the system produced executives who could see the world beyond their spreadsheets. It was assumed that a college graduate knew history, literature, political science, the arts, and other things that make us CIVILIZED as opposed to mere empty-headed consumers.

Also, there are far more jobs in the arts than there are in professional sports. Ever heard of commercial artists, studio musicians, and regional actors? I know plenty of people who make all or part of their living in the arts. Perhaps universities should dump professional sports instead of the arts, since pro sports entice young people from poor families with dreams of major league success only to chew them up and spit them out, often without a degree, after four years.
 

You're kidding, right?

customerserviceguy  (1000+ posts)      Thu Apr-02-09 10:28 PM
Response to Reply #4
7. Agreed
 there should be liberal arts training in schools to round people out, but the water company I work for really doesn't care that I acted in a Shakespeare play back in high school, or that I took a comparative religions class at the university. They're much more interested in the accounting, business law, and computer classes I took, and they're way more interested in the people skills I've acquired along the way that help me to deal with people who have a water bill and have lost jobs.

As for professional sports, I agree, there's a dead end for a lot of would-be pampered professional athletes. But at least sports are a way to a college education for people who could afford it no other way, and they often do pay their way with alumni who buy tickets. Just because there are student-athletes who are focused only on the big bucks rather than the education doesn't mean that it's not worthwhile to make that opportunity available.
 

lastliberalintexas (1000+ posts)      Fri Apr-03-09 01:25 AM
Response to Reply #7
23. Who says the point of education is to train you for a job?
 You are starting with a false premise, which is why you end up with the wrong answer.

 

girl gone mad  (1000+ posts)      Thu Apr-02-09 10:50 PM
Response to Reply #8
16. Larry Summers, is that you?
 Look at Apple. They make some of the best products around today. Engineering isn't what makes them great, good design is. That requires artistic skill. Innovations like Twitter and Facebook require creativity and social skills, the tech is secondary.

People are struggling to stay in their homes because our colleges produced far too many MBAs and the system became too heavily weighted towards finance. These supposed geniuses innovated themselves right out of business using complex Ponzi schemes and bad lending practices because they had no common sense on the whole. Unfortunately, they took the rest of us down with them.

customerserviceguy  (1000+ posts)      Fri Apr-03-09 12:30 AM
Response to Reply #16
20. If Apple, Twitter and Facebook
 are the best examples you can come up with from the top of your head, then my argument looks even more solid than I thought. The vast majority of computer users do NOT use Apples, and those silly iPods are just overhyped versions of things I can get for a tenth of the price. They're pretty much like running shoes that some athlete gets paid to shill for over a hundred bucks, that really don't last any longer than the cheap ones I get on the bargain table over at Big 5.

Twitter and Facebook are just fads, neither one has a business model that has made a dollar of profit. As soon as they start charging for what they do (what is that, really?) people will find the next free sites that do the same thing.

I don't think we need more MBA's either, or lawyers for that matter. It might be nice to have more nurses and other health professionals, that's one job category you can always find work in, in any city that I've ever checked the want ads in the paper.

Pwned

[SSG Snuggle Bunny]

customerserviceguy  (1000+ posts)      Fri Apr-03-09 12:30 AM
Response to Reply #16
20. If Apple, Twitter and Facebook
 are the best examples you can come up with from the top of your head, then my argument looks even more solid than I thought. The vast majority of computer users do NOT use Apples, and those silly iPods are just overhyped versions of things I can get for a tenth of the price. They're pretty much like running shoes that some athlete gets paid to shill for over a hundred bucks, that really don't last any longer than the cheap ones I get on the bargain table over at Big 5.

Twitter and Facebook are just fads, neither one has a business model that has made a dollar of profit. As soon as they start charging for what they do (what is that, really?) people will find the next free sites that do the same thing.

I don't think we need more MBA's either, or lawyers for that matter. It might be nice to have more nurses and other health professionals, that's one job category you can always find work in, in any city that I've ever checked the want ads in the paper.

Stupid freeper capitalist bastard with your market-forces. If I want to study interpretive dance to Air Supply's greatest hits on kazoo I have every right to do so and you greedy bourgeoisie bastards have no right to deny me that livelihood even if it has to be taxpayer subsidized!

HATER!!!

[franksolich]

The primitive girl gone insane is out of her gourd.

.....the tech is secondary.

Yeah, right.

[Carl]

Rational,linear and deductive thought that takes into account real world truths is not allowed at the DUmp.
Someone seems to have lost their rulebook.

[DumbAss Tanker]

They make some of the best products around today. Engineering isn't what makes them great, good design is. That requires artistic skill.

"They aren't actually better technically, but they look prettier and so people with arts and humanities degrees are more likely to pay extra to buy them."

  

[Tucker]

"They aren't actually better technically, but they look prettier and so people with arts and humanities degrees are more likely to pay extra to buy them."

  

H5. That explains a lot about quality of products. And so very true.

[lastparker]

Why can't they just face the fact that most people snicker when they hear "I have a Liberal Arts Degree!"?

[Tucker]

Why can't they just face the fact that most people snicker when they hear "I have a Liberal Arts Degree!"?

They try and justify their existence.

[Karin]

you would think art instructors would make better signs, I saw some made with pizza boxes.

*soft snort*  This is just so appropriate on so many levels.   I'm just envisioning. 

People are struggling to stay in their homes because our colleges produced far too many MBAs

That's right, what we need are more of those GLBT or Womyn's Studies majors.  Our economy will rock then!  These pronouncements, stated as authoritative fact, are endlessly irritating.

[jtyangel]

Hmm..I studied in one of the several business majors and it was littered with things that liberals would probably do well to take themselves: ethics. Interestingly, we had a lot of courses that I would actually say had more to do with psychology: you know how to motivate people. In a lot of that psychology I could say ways in which to make a dime off of liberal arts majors...just sayin'

Silly me though, I always thought at least your first foray with college was to train for..you know...a job. If you wanted to go back at your own leisure and ON YOUR OWN DIME to pursue something that interests you, that was for later. That's how I always thought it was anyway. *shrug*

[jtyangel]

Stupid freeper capitalist bastard with your market-forces. If I want to study interpretive dance to Air Supply's greatest hits on kazoo I have every right to do so and you greedy bourgeoisie bastards have no right to deny me that livelihood even if it has to be taxpayer subsidized!

HATER!!!

Air Supply huh? Woah! 

[Splashdown]

People are struggling to stay in their homes because our colleges produced far too many MBAs

What we need is some government agency telling each student what major he can or cannot take due to employment openings. /DU mode.

[JohnnyReb]

What we need is some government agency telling each student what major he can or cannot take due to employment openings. /DU mode.

But then only DUmmies will be street sweepers?

[Tucker]

But then only DUmmies will be street sweepers?

Well that won't work. They'll be too busy drawing pictures in the dirt and calling it art, therefore it's protected by the 1st amendment and the floor can't be swept.

[MrsSmith]

lastliberalintexas (1000+ posts)      Fri Apr-03-09 01:25 AM
Response to Reply #7
23. Who says the point of education is to train you for a job?
 You are starting with a false premise, which is why you end up with the wrong answer.

I hate to point this out, but this is a common belief among educators.  Even the conservative ones.  Being married to a college instructor, I've had this argument more than once.  Educators are convinced that a Bachelor's degree in ANYTHING will get you a job.  (To be fair, they make a lot of hiring decisions on just that basis.)

As I only have a "lowly little Associates degree," my opinion is evidently worthless to a highly educated educator...(despite the fact that my annual earnings are higher than his salary.)