# Preparing young adults for an uncertain future: education **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [May 26, 2026, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/preparing-young-adults-for-an-uncertain-future-education/1030412 "2026-05-26T19:23:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 9
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2026, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/preparing-young-adults-for-an-uncertain-future-education/1030412/161 "2026-06-10T15:48:51Z")
FWIW - consider that this board is an overwhelmingly highly educated crowd. We still get this thread: > [@What were the most useless skills you were taught in school?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-the-most-useless-skills-you-were-taught-in-school/1030648): > > In another thread I started on “Worst teacher”, someone brought up the fact that they were taught how to diagram sentences, a skill that I was also painfully taught…and never had to use in over 60 years. I believe that someone mentioned that they loved to do it, I don’t think anyone mentioned that they actually needed that “skill”. I also learned how to type on a manual typewriter (which I guess might come in handy when using a computer keyboard), and how to use a slide rule (gee, I can’t reme… These are not posters who just aren’t seeing that liberal arts can be useful even if you don’t directly use it, they bemoan having to learn math skills that they feel they don’t need … A little dissonance here. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2026, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/preparing-young-adults-for-an-uncertain-future-education/1030412/162 "2026-06-10T17:58:32Z")
> [@DSeid](#): > > And the not college educated are not as ignorant as you seem to think Would you please point out where I have ever stated that people without a college education are ignorant? I have taken pains at every turn to express the opposite. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2026, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/preparing-young-adults-for-an-uncertain-future-education/1030412/163 "2026-06-10T18:18:24Z")
My apologies. Conflating your response with @LSLGuy’s relegating the group as therefore having “no ability to learn” … your position on the issue is more nuanced. I still maintain that you overestimate the efficacy of college at encouraging lifelong learning, and underestimate how much that tendency is baked in by the time someone is 18. I’ve known many incurious college graduates and many intellectually curious without college educations. Moreover when I did show up to the one HS reunion I attended - the incurious of HS hadn’t become any more intellectual as college graduates. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2026, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/preparing-young-adults-for-an-uncertain-future-education/1030412/164 "2026-06-10T19:42:12Z")
> [@DSeid](#): > > I still maintain that you overestimate the efficacy of college at encouraging lifelong learning Quite possibly! ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2026, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/preparing-young-adults-for-an-uncertain-future-education/1030412/165 "2026-06-10T22:02:48Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > General education does a lot more than create a worker. It also creates a citizen and a useful human who has options besides a wasted vacant life akin to a draft animal. Not if students aren’t motivated. > **[Fewer kids and teens say they read for pleasure nearly every day compared...](https://www.nbcnews.com/data-graphics/kids-reading-less-lower-levels-department-education-study-rcna348987)** > > New federal data shows double-digit percentage point drops in the shares of 9- and 13-year-olds who read for fun almost every day. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2026, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/preparing-young-adults-for-an-uncertain-future-education/1030412/166 "2026-06-14T03:20:02Z")
> [@Filbert](#): > > Of course they’ve met women, but not gorgeous (heavily filtered) girls like they see in male influencer videos. I suspect that I see more gorgeous women jogging around my urban neighborhood every day than the average rural person sees in a year. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/preparing-young-adults-for-an-uncertain-future-education/1030412.md?page=8)