The million crybaby march is underway...

[Jim in CT]

Originally Posted by Jimbo

Professor Rockhound, my career was with the world's largest global satellite communications provider. I took a 1 year program and got a diploma in computer programming that got my foot in the door and spent the next 30 years jumping on things my college education prepared me for, like developing a distance learning program, writing procedures, writing documentation, writing press releases, writing patents to protect the company's intellectual property, asset management. If I encountered a situation where I was in an engineering function, which happened frequently, like doing equations of some sort, I got someone to show me the steps on their calculator and I memorized them. I think they call it "on the job training, or learning by doing". I think a lot of professional jobs are like that. You get the basics of something in college and take that to the workforce and apply it.
What I'm profoundly confused about is how the statement can be made that math and science for the non-technical person is recommended, but public speaking, creative or technical writing, or history for the technically bound is a load of crap.
I don't necessarily think kids really want college to be cheaper, I think many just want to bypass things they think are trivial, bypass entry level jobs and jump into a CEO's salary because they think they're owed that.

"but public speaking, creative or technical writing, or history for the technically bound is a load of crap"

Those things aren't a load of crap. But that's not the core of liberal arts courses. The core of liberal arts programs is to create a sense of entitlement, victimhood, and liberalism. Turn on the TV , watch what has been happening at Yale, maybe the finest liberal arts school in the world. The students there are idiotic, they couldn't form a coherent thought if their life depended on it. They are not learning the skills that you itemized, no one would be opposed to genuinely learning those skills. Those skills are critical. That's not what is being ingrained in these kids.

"I don't necessarily think kids really want college to be cheaper"

Due respect, then you're not paying attention to what they are saying, which is probably why you think liberal arts courses are designed to teach the valuable skills you itemized".