What you are talking about is a trade school, and those died out about 15-20 years ago. While I do agree that the Universities are in need or repair. I don't agree with turning them into trade schools that only teach specific subject matter.
I know what trade schools are for...
My Point is that W-W-W-A-A-A-A-Y-Y-Y too much time is consumed in a typical 4yr degree on
"Well-Rounded" education...again, fluff that flat out won't buy you a cup of coffee when you get out, and 95-99% will be flushed out of your memory banks within the first year.
That's the reality of it, and these Education Union Scammers know it!
Because it does not contribute
anything meaningful toward the
primary goal of preparing you for the marketplace, it should be kept to an Absolute minimum (no more than 10-15%). If the student didn't learn enough General Ed material by the time they graduate High School, then I say,
tough luck...Times up on the education system. You had them until they were old enough to be adults. Time to stop robbing them with wasteful, worthless, and most importantly...expensive courses. It doesn't just rob them of money and brain matter, but another
VERY valuable commodity....
TIME.
Let me give you a practical example. When I lived in the Nashville, Tennessee area, I did some research of the various 4yr colleges in the area to see which programs had a degree in 3D animation. MTSU (Middle Tennessee State Univ) was the only one. It is actually a huge college, with a larger student population than the University of Tennessee, in Knoxville.
I looked over the course plan and it was the most pathetic excuse for an education in this career field, you can imagine. All you had was an Intro, Intermediate, and Advanced Animation class. The other media-related classes were more or less cross-training in other disciplines, like graphic design. That's well below what a 2yr Technical college (like ITT tech) would provide.
So, in the end, a student graduating from there is far less prepared for the job market than the ITT grad...for the very same profession and job market.
The key difference is, that the MTSU grad can look down his nose at the Tech School Grad, when in reality...it's the Tech school kid who should be feeling very sorry for the MTSU kid, cause he's got about $30,000 more of student loan debt to deal with, and for the sake of bragging rights and a piece of paper, he also just funked-off 2 more years of his life.
The most important factor is that the ITT kid is probably going to have a much more impressive demo reel. So, given that practical scenario, who invested wisely, and who didn't?
I just feel very strongly that the whole
concept of Universities and state colleges is one driven by pompous aristocrats within the Education community. I see as partly driven by a self-preserving mechanism on their part. After all...if colleges and Universities DID begin to put more focus on preparing the student for the marketplace, then hordes of their colleagues would be out of a job! Couldn't have
THAT, now could we? I say, let them get regular jobs like the rest of us.
This idea that Universities are just preparing students for a career, but
"PREPARING THEM FOR LIFE"...is the biggest line of B.S. (Bovine Scatology) known to modern man.
It's the parents job to prepare them for life...not the knuckleheads governing the Education Unions!
All the spanish classes I took...didn't prepare me...
FOR LIFE!
The Anatomy and Biology classes (took Biology in HS, yet have to learn the very same crap in college all over again) didn't prepare me...
FOR LIFE.
They just hung a few G'notes around my neck, is all. No impact on my "collective intelligence" at all! Any education is only so good to the extent that you will continue to use what you have learned. That is why the goal of preparing the student to enter the market place should be primary and dominant. Why? because it is the ONLY education material that they can continue to practice and further expand upon in their career. Fluff courses are, in a very pragmatic sense,
FAT around the waste of the modern education system. All I'm saying is trim the fat...."Work it out, folks. And a 1 and a 2. Now back to the start..."
