Should colleges & universities be held accountable by younger protestors?

Originally posted by Partygirl

Originally posted by Iamonlyhuman
Would you blame the casino for a gamblers loss on a bet?

No I would not.

But the casino does not have a stated purpose and socially-recognized mandate to prepare the next generation for leadership roles.

College does. There is a difference.

Society can function without casinos. Can it function without higher education? Perhaps, but then the current system needs to be replaced or seriously reformed. Which is kind of the point of this thread to begin with.

College has a stated purpose: come to our university and get a degree in [fill in the subject]. That's it. Nothing more or less. Finding a job in one's chosen field is up to the graduate. If they can't find a job with that really useful Liberal Arts degree (the "I have no idea what I want to do in life" degree), then maybe they should suck it up and look for something else. My town has Help Wanted signs all over the place. Some of them are Taco Bell, but some income is better than zero income.

As to college tuition prices, I'm in college now getting a degree in History. Classes at my junior college are around $300 per 3 hour course. That should be well within the means of anyone wanting a degree. True, they can only get an Associates at a JC, but at least it's something.

/TOA

Why? they're not held accountable for the thousands of idiots they turn loose with diplomas every year.

They should be held accountable without doubt. If i went demonstrating and brought my company's name into disrepute then i would be reprimanded by some means and be held accountable for my actions.

Too add to this though if they never had so much time off with term breaks etc then they would be to busy to demonstrate, and as they do have so much time off, instead of complaining how much debt they have or how hard life is as a student then they should remember it was their choice, so stop whining and get on with it.

Personally i think going to college straight after leaving school is a lazy mans option in many cases. Why not get a job first and start working your way up or start a business then go to college once you can finance it, if not then study a different way.

Whatever the decision stop moaning and get on with it

reply to post by ThirdEyeofHorus


Sorry for the "People like you...." comment, which was probably unfair.

I just get sick of the idea that the only way to keep jobs from going overseas is "slash regulation." What about tarrifs and a tax scheme that punishes companies that outsource? This is never discussed..either on the right or the left. Why?

I have some ideas from the left and some from the right...culturally I am conservative and Christian, but I am looking around for new ideas economcially because I think the "deregulate deregulate deregulate" mantra is simply giving the companies more leeway to treat the American workers like garbage, and I think a lot of well-meaning people have been duped into singing this song for the corporations because they think its what good conservatives do. My opinion only.

Peace.

Originally posted by ThirdEyeofHorus
reply to post by Partygirl

 

Could be the start of a new trend in consolidating family dwellings as it was in the early part of the century and past centuries when multiple generations lived under the same roof and everyone contributed to the upkeep in their own ways, and grammaw and grampaw could still earn their keep with share of duties.

I actually think this could be a good thing, and go a long way to restoring lost values. But people have to embrace new (or is it old?) ways of thinking first. Less selfish, more value on the family, less materialistic. My family all lives close together and I have a feeling the recession will make us even closer.

reply to post by l_e_cox


Thanks for the nice complements! I was home-schooled and my parents were very strict about education.

Aren't there vocational schools in the US?

Anyway, I feel the theory they teach is important if you are on the cutting edge of your field. As someone programming, you might not need all the math you learned in college if you are doing business programs, but to make anything innovative the theory is very important.

The whole thing is based on the scarcity system, originally before they tried implementing it unto the masses it was a elite only thing, or as a ATS member said here once you have to be "in" crowd. And education does not dictate world means, it is the other way around, world means dictates education, basically supply and demand.

But ya originally it was basically a place were the rich and elite let there kids hang out to learn or thing or two about the "in" crowd, and the scarcity system. In most cases it is a overpriced babysitting, but hey they can aford it. Even today it comes down more to who you know, not what you know, or what you can do. Really the whole thing is outdated, and sure it can work and does work. But that is just the rule of supply and demand at work for whatever is needed there needs to be people to fill those places. The rest is just people being people and playing different versions of the scarcity game.

But even that is kind of pointless in the long run, and there are many more ways that the same thing can be done. It is done this way because of the nature of humanity, so if you have ever played any game or watched them play at it you would see that they all try to make it a scarcity game. That is they break up into groups the "in" crowd and the "out" crowd and make rules about how to conform to the "in" crowd, as to make rules for the "out" crowd to play by.

And both crowds have different rules that they play by, as a way of controlling the other crowd.

Mix and match a little and bend this and that a little, and add a little time, and we come to the impasse we are at today when it comes to education and the higher educations.

Anyways its a strange thing people do, personally I have never been much for learning or education, nor do I get it really, but it has it's purposes mainly supply and demand. And off course to keep people occupied, and for them to mingle and form groups. Among other things.

But hey Partygirl you would fit in to that crowd pretty good, and with your peculiar skills and likable personality you would go far. I still think your like some sort of thread posting machine. Have you thought of infiltrating that crowd it seems like you would fit "in".

Anyways its just another thing that kind of works...but kind of does not work. But really it's just something that people do, personally I find life kind of slow, and all of it is not needed to the extent that they try to make it. At least not now or in this lifetime, some time from now when real dragons come into this world yes, but for now its just people being people. And they should all chill while they all can, for there will come a time were chilling as we can do it today will not be a possibility.

There will be a time and place for that all to, as of now it just gets in the way of basic needs and comforts. Really its kind of funny and sad, that with all of humanities advances and knowledge it has been imparted, it still runs around in circles trying to survive even harder with more time put into surviving then they had it in the time of villages and tribes.

Really were is the progress in all of that?

Great new article on this topic:

The $1 Trillion Student Loan Rip-Off: How an Entire Generation Was Tricked into Taking on Crushing Debt That Just Enriches Banks

Young people accepted a home mortgage worth of debt before they ever even had a regular income based on phony promises.

USA Today says that at some point this year, student loan debt will exceed $1 trillion, surpassing even credit card debt. Felix Salmon says the number is closer to $550 billion. Either way total student loan debt is rising as other debts have tailed off. Delinquency has increased, too, since the height of the financial crisis.

It’s a huge mess.

Some people have noticed that “student loan debt” comes up a lot among the Wall Street Occupiers and the members of the 99 percent movement. Often, older people, who either attended school when tuition was reasonable, or who didn’t attend college at all in an era when a high school diploma was enough of a qualification for a stable, middle-class career, tend to think this is all the entitled whining of spoiled kids. They don’t understand that these kids accepted a home mortgage worth of debt before they ever even had a regular income, based on phony promises, and that the debt is inescapable, regardless of life circumstances or ability to pay.

More at link above.