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Andy K's avatar

For that piece on higher education, I studied some history of higher ed while working on my master’s and I work as non-academic staff at a college.

I agree there needs to be an overhaul of K-12 and college learning. But I think the misconception is that college was meant to be vocational. When college started being what it is now, it was for people who had a skill set already but needed to learn more. The sciences and going into academics are probably the only time it matters what bachelor degree you get. For the most part, it teaches critical thinking and skills that are transferable. It’s even a common joke that no one does what they major in. I think when we start pushing for alternatives to college, and there's nothing wrong with that for some, it may box them in and they are stuck with whatever trade they pick. And if that trade goes away or becomes automated/replaced by something else, they typically don't have the ability to transfer skills to something new.

The difficulty is that there really isn’t a right answer. Some people don’t have to go to college, but I worry that we get so negative on college that we are just creating more long term problems while not fixing the immediate ones. Otherwise we will find more people who can’t think critically and buy any conspiracy by faux intellectuals.

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