Students' loans

I've done it all.

... 8 years of college and a Masters Degree.

Now in my 60s, it seems to me most of it was useless waste of time and expense.

If I ruled the world education would be restricted to the acquisition of competence in mathematics, writing, and critical analysis. Degrees would be limited to medicine, engineering, and pure science. Maybe agriculture.

No offense James, but that is truly one of the most distressing things I've ever read.

If you ruled the world I'd say: stop the world, I want to get off.

The purpose of an education should first and foremost be to teach the student how to learn, how to think. It should expand the mind to the world's possibilities. Once those things happen, the student is prepared to really choose the best path for him (from a far wider range of possibilities than if he had not had his world and mind expanded) and then to succeed on that path.

That's how it worked for me and many of my college educated acquaintances.

Of course, there are some who think like you - education should be strictly functional or it is a waste of time. God what a stringent and mechanical world it will be if that idea comes to the fore.

It is sad that you feel that you wasted your time on education. If that's your opinion, it must be true.

But as for me, my college education was the most valuable four years of my life.
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by JAMESBJOHNSON
I've done it all.

... 8 years of college and a Masters Degree.

Now in my 60s, it seems to me most of it was useless waste of time and expense.

If I ruled the world education would be restricted to the acquisition of competence in mathematics, writing, and critical analysis. Degrees would be limited to medicine, engineering, and pure science. Maybe agriculture.


No offense James, but that is truly one of the most distressing things I've ever read.

If you ruled the world I'd say: stop the world, I want to get off.

The purpose of an education should first and foremost be to teach the student how to learn, how to think. It should expand the mind to the world's possibilities. Once those things happen, the student is prepared to really choose the best path for him (from a far wider range of possibilities than if he had not had his world and mind expanded) and then to succeed on that path.

That's how it worked for me and many of my college educated acquaintances.

Of course, there are some who think like you - education should be strictly functional or it is a waste of time. God what a stringent and mechanical world it will be if that idea comes to the fore.

It is sad that you feel that you wasted your time on education. If that's your opinion, it must be true.

But as for me, my college education was the most valuable four years of my life.

I have to say that I agree more with James than with you, Groucho. After deliberation, I might add a few more disciplines in which degrees would be offered, but not many. I mean, how does Society or an individual benefit from somebody earning a degree in The History of Art or Flower Arranging or some of the other effete lines of studying.

I see nothing wrong with offering elective courses in such fields, but I don't see any reason for somebody to graduate with a degree in such lines of study.

I graduated with a degree in Accounting, and my only motive for that was to get a better paying job, and it worked out quite well. :)
 
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I have to say that I agree more with James than with you, Groucho. After deliberation, I might add a few more disciplines in which degrees would be offered, but not many. I mean, how does Society or an individual benefit from somebody earning a degree in The History of Art or Flower Arranging or some of the other effete lines of studying.

I see nothing wrong with offering elective courses in such fields, but I don't see any reason for somebody to graduate with a degree in such lines of study.

I graduated with a degree in Accounting, and my only motive for that was to get a better paying job, and it worked out quite well. :)

How horribly narrow your world must be.
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Boxlicker101
I have to say that I agree more with James than with you, Groucho. After deliberation, I might add a few more disciplines in which degrees would be offered, but not many. I mean, how does Society or an individual benefit from somebody earning a degree in The History of Art or Flower Arranging or some of the other effete lines of studying.

I see nothing wrong with offering elective courses in such fields, but I don't see any reason for somebody to graduate with a degree in such lines of study.

I graduated with a degree in Accounting, and my only motive for that was to get a better paying job, and it worked out quite well.


How horribly narrow your world must be.

I started college when I was 40 years old, and I knew exactly what I wanted then. :cool:
 
Students today don't really understand the horrors of Hirosima and Nagasaki.

They rather practice anal sex.
 
Students today don't really understand the horrors of Hirosima and Nagasaki.

They rather practice anal sex.

I don't think you have to be a student to prefer anal sex to dropping a bomb on Hiroshima or Nagasaki.
 
I don't think you have to be a student to prefer anal sex to dropping a bomb on Hiroshima or Nagasaki.

The alternative, Operation Olympic, would have cost far more lives, Japanese and the Allies.

Og
 
Operation Olympic was an alternative to anal sex? (Spoilsports. :mad:)

Operation Olympic would have been the first part of Operation Downfall which was aimed at shafting the Japanese.

One ouch factor was the idea that US troops could enter an area devastated by an Atom Bomb within 48 hours. That would have killed many US troops - slowly.

Og
 
GROUCHO et al

There was a time I advocated degrees in every damned thing perfessers can imagine, but after a long life I now think most disciplines exist to provide work for perfessers who couldnt otherwise sell their wares in the market.

Back in the 60s when I was a larval head-shrinker Freud was Law and Queer was an official disorder. Sugar caused hyperactivity and moms created schizophrenia. I knew 2 men who died of brain tumors cuz their shrink thought otherwise. It was all bullshit. It still is.

So the time and effort and money I invested in an education was pissed away except for the math coursework I took.

Lets train physicians and engineers and real scientists, and let everyone with a mania for humbug join an online college of multiculural diversity and hairstyling.
 
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