What if students were given responsibilities of the government?

Now, here's a question that I have no idea the answer to. What if students that have already obtained bachelor degrees in a field and are attending top Universities and colleges for post grad degrees were given real world assignments, their assignments being to work on different problems as an entire classroom or network?

Nothing would give them more real life and hands on experience while we would have hundreds, thousands of minds aspiring to be professionals in their fields, tackling our nation's economic and social issues.

Why are we relying on a few hundred old white men in DC to come up with every law, regulation, program funding, etc when we have so many younger people that are in a position, age, etc to tackle all of these issues - and have more reason to want to make America great. Their futures depend on it, their peers and families future depends on it.

This would be a way to access the will of the public, but not just any average Joe who knows nothing about that topic.

The organization of such processes would be somewhat difficult but I think the results could be amazing. To have top students from across the nation becoming a large think tank...

What do you think?

-deadlyhope

a reply to: deadlyhope

One major issue is liability - if the student makes a mistake or isn't fully aware of other laws/statutes/whathaveyou that could affect what they are doing, the SCHOOL would be held accountable, therefore no higher ed. institution would want to take that risk.

I work in Government, and College Education and Healthcare and can tell you that our students/apprentices are never ever allowed to do anything with medical records, even if it is the most basic of tasks because they are not yet "employees" and don't have the credentials or authority to carry out even those menial tasks.


I like your creative thinking though!

a reply to: FamCore

How accountable do we hold congressman and senators when they only mess things up with their agendas?

I'm not saying the students would directly be able to make change, but rather be the place where ideas come from - congressman and senators could only justify deviating from these ideas so much, if it was the norm, it would be more like... Schools came up with these ten ideas, pick one, or something.

This is very much in the making though which is why I posted it here flesh the idea out and see if it is worth anything.

a reply to: deadlyhope

There's a distinct difference between a "student"-one "Studying-learning-applying/pass/fail to learn something"...and others who've already "studied-applied-learned" what they have PRACTICED in relations within the government and governments.

The youth doesnt understand completely the workings and the possibly devasting effects of making decisions without the experience to make them.

The bombs would fly..they'd cuss Kim out(look-he's young too)..bomb all over the Middle East chasing ISIS without the long term implications. Thats a bit about what's called diplomacy. It takes experience to know how to deal with the world.

Im afraid the youth would treat things like a video game...one where real people die real deaths. There is a reason why we have an age minimum limit on the highest office.

a reply to: mysterioustranger

You truly believe ivy league students with bachelor degrees are immature little kids that would throw tantrums still? Stanford and MIT students come up with a lot more ideas, statistics, inventions than we would imagine

a reply to: deadlyhope

Why are students suddenly better than people who have practical experience in those fields? At best, students are studying theory with very little practical application experience to back it up.

This is why so many students are often seduced by the siren song of socialist and other Marxist constructs. Those things are beautiful theories that work wonderfully well on paper.

However, once people get out into reality and experience how things actually operate in terms of human nature, usually students wake and realize that socialism is horribly impractical.

Another way to explain it would be best illustrated by a show they had for two season on Discover. It tried to put people on a post-disaster survival footing. The first group was in a simulated urban setting with people having been wiped out by plague or something. The group contained a completely academic rocket scientist and a very experienced handy man. Both something of experts in their field. At first, the academic had nothing but contempt for the handy man who had barely above a middle school education ... until all his high-minded, theoretic ideas kept failing mechanically. That's when the handy man stepped in and showed him where things were going wrong.

One had the theory, but the other had the real-world, practical experience and knowledge to know how to adapt the ideas and make them work with what was at hand. Until theory met practicality, neither was workable, but the two together made a tough team.

So to get back to your students, they have the theory, but theory alone would not be enough.

These days kids make so much more sense than the people we have in power, i wouldent mind seeing some fresh new minds tackling government issues, also they wouldent already be bought.

Good question op

originally posted by: dukeofjive696969
These days kids make so much more sense than the people we have in power, i wouldent mind seeing some fresh new minds tackling government issues, also they wouldent already be bought.

Good question op

Anyone who is financed by student loans is already bought by the government. Next ...

originally posted by: deadlyhope

Nothing would give them more real life and hands on experience while we would have hundreds, thousands of minds aspiring to be professionals in their fields, tackling our nation's economic and social issues.

Your idea is actually quite scary to me. It would not have been 10 or even just 5 years ago but seeing the way of thinking of the millennial generation the idea truly worries me.

Students are reportedly upset that the university wants them to keep up with their academics amid their protesting.

www.campusreform.org...

Student activists at Brown University are complaining of emotional stress and poor grades after months of protesting, and blame the school for insisting that they complete their coursework.

“There are people breaking down, dropping out of classes, and failing classes because of the activism work they are taking on,” an undergraduate student going by the pseudonym “David” told The Brown Daily Herald Thursday. “My grades dropped dramatically. My health completely changed. I lost weight. I’m on antidepressants and anti-anxiety pills right now. Counselors called me. I had deans calling me to make sure I was okay.”


"My grades dropped dramatically. My health completely changed. I lost weight. I’m on antidepressants and anti-anxiety pills right now." Tweet This


Other students reported similar problems, describing maladies ranging from emotional distraction to panic attacks that they say caused them to skip assignments, miss class, and generally lose focus on keeping their grades up.

David and other students began demonstrating on campus in October to protest two opinion columns published in the Daily Herald that some students deemed racist because they defended the celebration of Columbus Day. Black and Asian student groups reacted by demanding that the paper not only retract and apologize for the op-eds, but also develop a plan for increasing the diversity of its staff, subject to approval by the activists.

[RELATED: Brown student paper given ultimatum after publishing ‘racist’ op-eds]

Following an almost-immediate capitulation by the newspaper’s editorial board, and incensed by University President Christina Paxson’s attempt to stake out a middle ground on the matter, the protesters proceeded to direct their unspent energies on the university as a whole, issuing an ultimatum in November calling for affirmative action hiring policies, mandatory diversity training, and apologies for Brown’s historical ties to the slave trade.

Paxson released a draft of a new Diversity Action and Inclusion Plan 10 days later, only to find herself besieged in her own office by student protesters complaining that the plan was “illegitimate and insufficient” and demanding an end to “open dialogues and forums” on the matter.

[RELATED: Brown students hold ‘day of reclamation,’ demand end to dialogue on diversity]

David, who spent many hours helping to organize the demonstrations, claims he reached out to both Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) and his academic deans for support, but told the Daily Herald that the therapy and deans’ notes requesting extended deadlines on his assignments were little more than “bandages” for the stress of balancing his activism with existing obligations to school, work, and friends.

[RELATED: Brown students: improving race relations is more important than free speech]

Other students expressed similar frustration with the university’s expectation that they keep up with their schoolwork during the protests, saying that some professors refused to grant extensions on homework and tests.

Justice Gaines, an undergraduate student who uses the pronouns xe, xem and xyr, even recounted suffering from what xe describes as “a panic attack” related to xyr emotions over the Daily Herald op-eds, adding that xe “couldn’t go to class for several days” following the episode.

Liliana Sampedro, one of the students who compiled the diversity ultimatum, argued that refusal to grant such accommodations “has systemic effects on students of color,” who she said may sometimes feel obligated to prioritize their activist work over their studies.

“I remember emailing the professor and begging her to put things off another week … I hadn’t eaten. I hadn’t slept. I was exhausted, physically and emotionally,” Sampedro recalled. The professor nonetheless insisted that she submit a previously-assigned research presentation on time, which she claims forced her to stay up late to finish the project after having already spent hours working on the list of demands.

Assistant Dean of Student Support Services Ashley Ferranti, however, told the Daily Herald that over 90 percent of such requests are routinely accepted, and that the university strives to maintain its academic standards without discouraging students from becoming politically involved.

a reply to: ketsuko
I whole heartily agree on that.

originally posted by: deadlyhope
Now, here's a question that I have no idea the answer to. What if students that have already obtained bachelor degrees in a field and are attending top Universities and colleges for post grad degrees were given real world assignments, their assignments being to work on different problems as an entire classroom or network?

What do you think?

I wouldn't have a clue -- I assume we'd only know what they were up to based on their Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat and Facebook updates as that's the only way most of them know how to communicate these days.

originally posted by: ketsuko

originally posted by: dukeofjive696969
These days kids make so much more sense than the people we have in power, i wouldent mind seeing some fresh new minds tackling government issues, also they wouldent already be bought.

Good question op

Anyone who is financed by student loans is already bought by the government. Next ...

Are you comparing student loans to big companies buying politicians, wow you didint think that one out.

Probably result in nuclear war within a week with China because "human rights".

Or with Russia because "gay rights".

Or whatever it is Students are complaining about these days.

originally posted by: dukeofjive696969

originally posted by: ketsuko

originally posted by: dukeofjive696969
These days kids make so much more sense than the people we have in power, i wouldent mind seeing some fresh new minds tackling government issues, also they wouldent already be bought.

Good question op

Anyone who is financed by student loans is already bought by the government. Next ...

Are you comparing student loans to big companies buying politicians, wow you didint think that one out.

Yes, I did.

Who gets to decide what professions are considered "virtuous" enough to forgive that debt? Have you lived with student loan debt equal to your mortgage? Such offers are not a small thing ...

That is not an insignificant amount of monthly income, and it goes on for years.

Maybe I am not the one who failed to think it through.

It turns out, many Founding Fathers were younger than 40 years old in 1776, with several qualifying as Founding Teenagers or Twentysomethings. And though the average age of the signers of the Declaration of Independence was 44, more than a dozen of them were 35 or younger.

How Old Were the Leaders of the American Revolution on July 4, 1776?

A case can be made that a big reason government is so screwed now is that the people running it are too old.

You could do it a bit like National Geographic does for kids - put real-world problems into an educational format / website online.

For this project, have the students work out how to solve the issue in teams or networks made up of different disciplines - i.e. Law, political science, Computer Science, Engineering etc based on the problem to be solved.

Infrastructure problem - how to make a secure system that can share information across platforms to integrate outdated computer databases that need to talk to each other for efficiency.

Or, with a theoretical budget of x million dollars, design new bridge/highway structures and materials that are both extremely safe and durable to fix crumbling infrastructure. Design new bridges that can be made inexpensively to meet safety and financial parameters. Etc.

Make participation part of a loan payback system where students of a certain caliber can earn "reverse scholarships" from the govt for their viable ideas.

I like that you are thinking in a fresh way. Good OP!

-AB

a reply to: AboveBoard

Make participation part of a loan payback system where students of a certain caliber can earn "reverse scholarships" from the govt for their viable ideas.

But here we are! Students being bought by the government for the virtuous occupation of working on ideas.

Part of the problem now is that government is run by a bunch of academics and lawyers with no real world experience. I can't see how students would be any worse.

a reply to: everyone

You just linked a post about under graduate students, Im talking about ivy league schools. Show me the bratty kid from Stanford, MIT - these are the people I'm pointing at. People smarter than the general population. People more driven and achievers, people wanting to go the extra mile.

Obviously it would be based on performance and achievement and not just attendance alone, since sometimes rich people get their kids into such schools.

originally posted by: deadlyhope
a reply to: everyone

You just linked a post about under graduate students, Im talking about ivy league schools. Show me the bratty kid from Stanford, MIT - these are the people I'm pointing at. People smarter than the general population. People more driven and achievers, people wanting to go the extra mile.

Obviously it would be based on performance and achievement and not just attendance alone, since sometimes rich people get their kids into such schools.

Why just Ivy League? They do not have the exclusive province on smartest you know. There are many bright and talented kids who opt for far less expensive schools because they are smart enough to realize they could never hope to pay that debt back. That right there is the first recommendation of wisdom I would think.