What If Universities Were Designed to Produce Workers?

[sargentodiaz]

What an awesome idea!

This is a most insightful article about the pros and cons of this.  A couple of ideas:

No more Majors.

No more silly required courses

In fact, why have classes at all?

No more grades.  (Wow!) Proficiency exams instead.

What about internships?

Read the entire piece with links @ http://www.wired.com/2015/02/university-designed-produce-workers/

[ExGeeEye]

Well...

The most useful college course I ever took taught me how to use the industrial machinery I work with today.

All the rest?  Expensive filler and entertainment.  Yeah, "Guided Studies in Film" was fun and I saw a lot of movies that semester, but the tuition from that class alone would pay a month's bills and thereby be more useful...

...never mind Biology and Phys Ed, annoying throwbacks to High School...so much wasted time and money...

[MrsSmith]

It will never happen.  They'd have to fire 95% of the faculty and hire conservatives in their place.

[DumbAss Tanker]

I had to take some really garbage courses to fill distribution requirements as an undergrad, but I also gleaned a lot of information from some of them that came in quite handy later, in ways I wouldn't have foreseen at the time.  Despite ending up as a lawyer with a couple of other grad degrees, my somewhat-interrupted higher education started as an engineering student, and I do have to say that a lot of my fellow engineering students desperately needed a lot more proficiency in communicating in English, both writing and speaking, than the minimums the curriculum required.  So, I'm of two minds on the whole thing.

[MrsSmith]

I had to take some really garbage courses to fill distribution requirements as an undergrad, but I also gleaned a lot of information from some of them that came in quite handy later, in ways I wouldn't have foreseen at the time.  Despite ending up as a lawyer with a couple of other grad degrees, my somewhat-interrupted higher education started as an engineering student, and I do have to say that a lot of my fellow engineering students desperately needed a lot more proficiency in communicating in English, both writing and speaking, than the minimums the curriculum required.  So, I'm of two minds on the whole thing.

I think English, writing, and speaking should be taught to all students.  Most other Gen Ed classes are much less valuable...and if some portion of it would be valuable, it could be taught within the classes intended to turn out workers.

Of course, I think most colleges should require students to have work-study jobs, also.  An education you WORK for is more valuable to you, and you are more inclined to take what you need most to get a good job...and to work harder at those classes.

[DefiantSix]

Mike Rowe weighs in...

Kyle Smith writes...
Howard Dean recently criticized Gov Scott Walker for never finishing college, stating that he was "unknowledgeable." What would your response be on college as a requirement for elected office?

Hi Kyle
Back in 1990, The QVC Cable Shopping Channel was conducting a national talent search. I had no qualifications to speak of, but I needed a job, and thought TV might be a fun way to pay the bills. So I showed up at The Marriott in downtown Baltimore with a few hundred other hopefuls, and waited for a chance to audition. When it was my turn, the elevator took me to the top floor, where a man no expression led me into a suite and asked me to take a seat behind a large desk. Across from the desk, there was a camera on a tripod. On the desk was a digital timer with an LED display. I took a seat as the man clipped a microphone on my shirt and explained the situation.
“The purpose of this audition is to see if you can talk for eight minutes without stuttering, blathering, passing out, or throwing up. Any questions?”
“What would you like me to talk about,” I asked.
The man pulled a pencil from behind his ear and rolled it across the desk. “Talk to me about that pencil. Sell it. Make me want it. But be yourself. If you can do that for eight minutes, the job is yours. Ok?”
I looked at the pencil. It was yellow. It had a point on one end, and an eraser on the other. On the side were the words, Dixon Ticonderoga Number 2 SOFT.
“Ok,” I said.
The man set the timer to 8:00, and walked behind the tripod. He pressed a button and a red light appeared on the camera. He pressed another button and the timer began to count backwards. “Action,” he said. I picked up the pencil and started talking.

<snip>

[thundley4]

Mike Rowe weighs in...

Liberals are starting to hate Mike Rowe.  It began in earnest when he did a commercial for Walmart last year.

[DefiantSix]

Liberals are starting to hate Mike Rowe.  It began in earnest when he did a commercial for Walmart last year.

I haven't heard that he's losing any sleep over it.

I sure as hell wouldn't.  The knowledge that leftists hate me is just reinforcement that what I'm doing is correct.