On 7/12/08, tedd <tedd.sperling@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: > > At 9:13 AM -0500 7/12/08, David Giragosian wrote: > >> Todd Boyd recently offered: >> >> Haven't taken a distributed computing class just yet, but I've still got >>> a bit until I graduate, and these elective credits are burning a hole in >>> my pocket... >>> >> >> The cost of public colleges and universities, as well as community >> colleges, >> are truly astounding these days. I for one am quite happy learning from >> books, web tutorials and the occasional ( ;-g ) mailing list thread. >> >> --David. >> > > Yes, but college degrees are the bill of goods we've been sold. We are lead > to believe that if our children (and us) go to colleges and get that > sheepskin then everything will be great for the rest of our lives. But > unfortunately, that's not true. > > In the meantime, academia and politician still demand more funding waving > the same banner of yesteryear -- "Your children's education needs improving" > -- while continuing to fail miserably in the global arena. > > Like with everything else, you really don't realize the problem until you > bounce off the bottom. We just haven't reached that yet, but we're doing our > level best to get there. > > Cheers (I guess), > > tedd We had an article in our local paper yesterday about the guy that made and 'starred' in the video that Daniel posted about here a couple of weeks ago (Matt of 'Where in the World is Matt', fame). Seems his father didn't think he was mature enough to be able to benefit from college, and he was advised to do some traveling instead. That apparently led to an early version of the current 15-minutes-of-fame video. When I read that, I thought, not everybody is buying into the college degree to 'success' route. But that I'm sure is the exception rather than the rule. I think the bigger problem, for education and the USA at least, is that there are few middle-class jobs to be prepared for, despite what you might learn in school. Learning for the sake of learning is wonderful, and yes, I think it does benefit society by broadening one's perspective, but as a path to financial success, defined here as being able to support yourself and raise a family, I agree that a college degree is a dicey undertaking for the expense. (And to be clear, I've completed 10 years of post high school education.) --David.
