Surging college costs price out middle class

Originally posted by unityemissions
Just going to state my personal opinion here...


Schooling is for losers, and the winners are edumacated entrepreneurs...

Ha ha

Don't you mean Educated entrepenreurs...

PDUK

reply to post by PurpleDog UK


Nope

reply to post by Vanishr


The job market is so messed up in my region, that companies are trying to require degrees for jobs that pay barely more than minimum wage. For example, I went to our employment office and found a job I was interested in. It was in advertising and making a company newsletter. The job's original description said it didn't require a degree. I got to the interviewer and the company said that it required a Bachelor's or better in Marketing or Journalism. The pay: $8.00 an hour. Just $8.00 for full time, head of a department with a Bachelor's degree.

It's a buyer's market if you're a company looking for skilled people. The economy is definitely driving down the value of all college degrees. The lady at the employment office said that wasn't the first time she'd seen that happen.

Originally posted by dolphinfan
reply to post by nixie_nox

 

Speak with someone in their 70s or 80s about what they learned in high school and it will sound much like today's college degree.

To add to the spirit of debate. I got this in an email. I couldn't pass it in the time given. A lot of my friends didn't even know what some of the words meant. I had to look them up.

This is the test you needed to pass in order to graduate from eighth grade in 1895. The test is from Kansas, but according to my great-uncle (age 90) it isn't much removed from what he had to pass in his old one room school house in TN.

I don't have an original link. I don't take credit for writing it. Someone smarter than me invented it over a hundred years ago...

8th Grade Final Exam: Salina, KS, 1895

Grammar (Time, one hour)
1. Give nine rules for the use of capital letters.
2. Name the parts of speech and define those that have no modifications.
3. Define verse, stanza and paragraph
4. What are the principal parts of a verb? Give principal parts of "lie," "play," and "run."
5. Define case; Illustrate each case.
6 What is punctuation? Give rules for principal marks of punctuation.
7 - 10. Write a composition of about 150 words and show therein that you understand the practical use of the rules of grammar.

Arithmetic (Time, 1:25 hours)
1. Name and define the Fundamental Rules of Arithmetic.
2. A wagon box is 2 ft. deep, 10 feet long, and 3 ft. wide. How many bushels of wheat will it hold?
3. If a load of wheat weighs 3942 lbs., what is it worth at 50cts/bushel, deducting 1050 lbs. for tare?
4 District No 33 has a valuation of $35,000. What is the necessary levy to carry on a school seven months at $50 per month, and have $104 for incidentals?
5. Find the cost of 6720 lbs. coal at $6.00 per ton.
6. Find the interest of $512.60 for 8 months and 18 days at 7 percent.
7. What is the cost of 40 boards 12 inches wide and 16 ft. long at $20 per foot?
8. Find bank discount on $300 for 90 days (no grace) at 10 percent.
9. What is the cost of a square farm at $15 per acre, the distance of which is 640 rods?
10. Write a Bank Check, a Promissory Note, and a Receipt

U.S. History (Time, 45 minutes)
1. Give the epochs into which U.S. History is divided
2. Give an account of the discovery of America by Columbus.
3. Relate the causes and results of the Revolutionary War.
4. Show the territorial growth of the United States.
5. Tell what you can of the history of Kansas.
6. Describe three of the most prominent battles of the Rebellion.
7. Who were the following: Morse, Whitney, Fulton, Bell, Lincoln, Penn, and Howe?
8. Name events connected with the following dates: 1607, 1620, 1800, 1849, 1865.

Orthography (Time, one hour)
1. What is meant by the following: Alphabet, phonetic, orthography, etymology, syllabication
2. What are elementary sounds? How classified?
3. What are the following, and give examples of each: Trigraph, subvocals, diphthong, cognate letters, linguals. 4. Give four substitutes for caret 'u.' (HUH?)
5. Give two rules for spelling words with final ! 'e.' Name two exceptions under each rule.
6. Give two uses of silent letters in spelling. Illustrate each.
7. Define the following prefixes and use in connection with a word: bi, dis, mis, pre, semi, post, non, inter, mono, sup.
8. Mark diacritically and divide into syllables the following, and name the sign that indicates the sound: card, ball, mercy, sir, odd, cell, rise, blood, fare, last.
9. Use the following correctly in sentences: cite, site, sight, fane, fain, feign, vane, vain, vein, raze, raise, rays. 10. Write 10 words frequently mispronounced and indicate pronunciation by use of diacritical marks and by syllabication.

Geography (Time, one hour)
1 What is climate? Upon what does climate depend?
2. How do you account for the extremes of climate in Kansas?
3 Of what use are rivers? Of what use is the ocean?
4. Describe the mountains of North America
5. Name and describe the following: Monrovia, Odessa, Denver, Manitoba, Hecla, Yukon, St. Helena, Juan Fernandez, Aspinwall and Orinoco.
6. Name and locate the principal trade centers of the U.S
7. Name all the republics of Europe and give the capital of each.
8. Why is the Atlantic Coast colder than the Pacific in the same latitude?
9. Describe the process by which the water of the ocean returns to the sources of rivers.
10. Describe the movements of the earth. Give the inclination of the earth.

Notice that the exam took FIVE HOURS to complete. Gives the saying "He only had an 8th grade education." a whole new meaning, doesn't it?!

For those of us who didn't know what Orthography is, I looked it up:

The orthography of a language specifies a standardized way of using a specific writing system (script) to write the language

It's associated with spelling also.

What I noticed is that the knowledge taught back then mattered to every day life. It was practical.