I just came up with a question that I’ve had a huge debate out not too long ago. I personally believe that college is necessary for everyone. I was wondering if you though the same thing. As you know, some people say that you don’t have to go to college to make money—which is absolutely true. But, how about going to college to advance your knowledge? What’s your opinion?
Oopsies…I made numerous spelling errors. Excuse me. Hope you can understand what I’m trying to say.
I have a son that is just not college material. You know the old saying, “You can make me go to school, but you can’t make me learn”. I’m not wasting my money and he would be wasting his time.
The kid is intelligent in a people way, but can’t stand opening a book. I worry about this of course, but I have met many educated people that were dumber that a box of rocks.
Well, of course college is not for everyone. Someone with a low IQ who is not likely to be anything more than a ditchdigger or a garbageman would have absolutely no use for college. I’m certainly not meaning to imply anything ugly by saying this, no an can help what they’re born with and we need garbagemen.
But if you are meaning “everyone” as in everyone who has the innate intelligence and self-motivation to gain some value from it, unfortunately our society seems to be that way now. It takes a degree to get a job that has nothing to do with any type of degree. And if there is no type, someone will come up with one and then next thing you know, anyone who wants to pursue that profession “needs” that degree. My ex once said that about the only thing you can make a fair living at these days that doesn’t require a degree is managing a grocery store. And that’s only because no one’s thought of coming up with a BGA - Bachelor of Grocery Arts.
Irony once again slaps us upside the head with a soggy pickle.
I used to be in a job for a tiny company, and the manager had recently gotten his degree in Marketing and Business or something. And he was terrible as a manager, he really didn’t have a clue what he was doing, and the business failed after 18 months.
Now I’m in a job and the manager’s only degree is in Theatre, yet the (non-theatrical) business is being managed wonderfully. It’s growing, it’s fairly solid, the employees are happy, and we’re successful in our field.
You don’t have to have a degree to be a success, and you aren’t necessarily going to be a success if you get the right degree.
Necessary, no, not for everybody. Useful and convenient, yes, as it provides an opportunity to explore higher levels of knowledge in an organized, time-tested fashion.
As mentioned before a degree controls access to many jobs, but a person does not need to work at one of those jobs, it’s their choice. Refer to GuanoLad’s post.
Absolutely not. I’m a PhD student, so obviously I’ve invested a huge amount of my own time and energy in higher education, and I believe in the process and think it has value. But not for everyone. To be honest, I’d much rather see fewer students going to college, or going later in life after they’ve had time to think about what they want from the experience – despite the fact that it would put my own job at risk.
Most students go to college for the wrong reason – either because everybody else in their school or neighborhood is going, or because they think a degree guarantees them a job. Granted, some of these students do end up getting a lot out of the experience, but I’d much prefer that they waited a few years and came to it on their own terms rather than because somebody else expected it. Others simply aren’t cut out for academics – which doesn’t make them stupid, just focused in different directions – and learn very little in college, then blossom in the working world or the military or wherever they end up. Most of these people would be better off not going to college, if only employers weren’t obsessive about requiring a degree. I think it’s a damn shame that we’ve come to mistake academic qualifications for vocational ones; it’s not fair to employees or to the academy.
That said, I think a college education is a good thing for most people, if it’s their own choice and they’re mature enough to know what they’re doing.
Euty! A soggy pickle? Gross.
I am definitely of the opinion that college is NOT for everyone. One of the biggest problems concerning colleges now (IMHO) is that too many of the students are there just because they’re ‘supposed’ to go to college, and not because they want to learn, like Fretful Porpentine said. These people clog up the classrooms where students like me are trying to genuinely learn, and that’s not fair.
/agree with Fretful
I started college at 29 – after spending a few years in the Army, getting married and having a couple of children. I was far better prepared to go to school, mostly because I wanted to be there.
As a couple of other posters have pointed out, getting a degree does not mean someone has the right qualifications to do a job. It just means that person was able to complete a set course of study at a university.
I’m very glad I got my degree, mostly because in my field it’s required. Other than that, I’m not a bit smarter than I was before I went to school.
Plus I’m not really a better employee than I was before except that I’m more mature. And that comes with age, not education.
Perhaps you do not realize the following;
We need people to flip burgers,
We need people to be garbagemen,
We need people to pump gas,
We need people to be gardeners,
We need farmers,
We need people who arent ‘highly educated’ in order to make this country work.
My $0.02
-x
This thread is better suited for In My Humble Opinion. I’ll move it for you.
Cajun Man ~ SDMB Moderator
No. No. No. No. And No.
College isn’t nessesary for half the people in it, to judge from the population in my classes who are there for all the wrong reasons. Any class is detracted from when more than half the class doesn’t want to be there, and while there should be a minimum educational level forced upon the public, college should be beyond that. Higher education should be for the people who want to be there, not for kids who have no idea what they want to do and are just trying to get away from their parents.
While we are here, if you hate math, chemistry, and homework, why are you majoring in Chemical Engeering? Get out of my school, stop wasting my time to get an education by refusing to put the work in and then wanting everyone to cut you slack because you don’t like anything involved with the major!
Wow…I see I’m the only one here with a difference of opinion. Which isn’t bad at all.
I’m a Federal employee earning nearly $40K a year and I’ve never been to college.
No, it’s not. But a lot of people think it is. It’s not even always necessary in fields which people THINK it is.
My mother’s husband has been working with computers since the late '60s. He has had email since 1974. He can make a mainframe computer sit up and beg.
However, he’s had a hell of a time getting any higher in the company he works for because – guess what! – he doesn’t have a degree! Of course he doesn’t! There was NO SUCH THING back then!
Apparently a piece of paper acquired with information that will be virtually obsolete within a few years is a better job qualifier than 30+ years of DIRECT EXPERIENCE.
slow burn
“in fields IN which.” I should learn to preview.
A lot of unskilled labor can be done by high school students, or, more generally, by people who will go to college some day and get more challenging jobs. So the existence of unskilled labor does not imply that college is not for everyone.
However, even so, I don’t think that everyone has a need for advanced job training. But we do all have a need for higher education. If you think that the main point of going to college is to get a better job, then I agree that college is not for everyone. However, that’s certainly not why I went to college. The OP even mentioned advancing knowledge as opposed to advancing your career, something almost everyone here seems to have overlooked.
I think that four solid years of education beyond high school is probably too much to ask for the purposes of personal edification, but maybe five or six courses over ten years? That’s something that almost everyone can benefit from.
In my neighbourhood, at the time, simply finishing High School was considered quite an accomplishment. A number of my friends didn’t get past Grade Nine and yet they’re intelligent, well spoken and, in several cases, avid reader’s who have made it a point to self-educate themselves. I only have Grade Twelve and I’m happy in my work, my family and my friends. I think that’s beyond “Good Enough”.
I believe a wide range of experience, if it’s combined with a willingness to learn, will equip a person for life far better than four years in a classroom.
Actually, I don’t even think high school is necessary for everyone, if you really think about it. The basic academic skills you need to survive in society–reading, writing, arithmetic, basic science, history, geography, how government works–they are all taught by eighth grade. (In my school, we even learned how to balance a checkbook, calculate interest, and the basics of the stock market.) Many people aren’t really interested in learning beyond that point. Maybe they should be, but they just aren’t. They aren’t going to use algebra or chemical equations or write research papers in the years ahead, even if their job “requires” a high school diploma. All a high school diploma says is that you were willing to put in the necessary “seat time”. It’s getting to be that a bachelor’s degree means about the same thing.
Learning for learning’s sake is all fine and dandy if you want to do it. I’d say that there are a great many people on this board who are into learning in many different ways. However, if all you want to do is get a job–why waste time, money, and effort?
If, on the other hand, you want to learn about a certain subject, there are many different ways to go about it–you could read books, look things up on the internet, ask people about it, simply try it out (if it’s a hands-on kind of thing) or you could take a class (or a lot of classes!) Why is taking a class the only “legitimate” way to advance your knowledge?