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A Letter from a Conservative Student on Saturday, April 25, 2009 4:25:00 PM
Do our colleges really get us ready for the real world experience? I have spent the better part of my collegiate career asking myself and my friends this very question.
The Path of the College Student
When we first get to college we are all excited. A new chapter in our lives, new friends, new town, new living environment. New classes excite some of us as well, the fact that we are one step closer to fulfilling our dreams and becoming adults. But we are fooled, we are fooled in to thinking that we are going to learn new things to bring us closer to our career. We spent our first sixty credit hours, four semesters, or a total of two years getting schooled in the exact same things we were taught in high school. American History 101, did we really just spend a thousand dollars plus money on books for a class that I took four previous times throughout my schooling? Yes we did. To me it seems foolish to spend those critical dollars and spend those critical years before we get bored of the college experience re-learning what we have already learned.
The institutions say that taking these Gen Eds will make us more well-rounded individuals, when in all reality it is just making us jacks of all trades but masters of none. This has always baffled me individually and I personally have argued it out in philosophy classes while learning about Friere and his teaching ideas, which are in practice today. We get enough "rounding" in our twelve years of schooling before college, why add an extra two and thousands of dollars on the same thing? Historically the most successful civilizations have been the ones with specialized labor forces. Where groups of people were good at certain things and could trade those skills with other groups to make a successful society. It is a very funny thing to think that in any history of economics class one could take in college will describe that the division of labor, or the specialization of labor was the key to increased productivity and efficiency throughout history. Yet, our society or our doesn't practice what it preaches or teaches.
A Possible Answer
I have spent some time asking myself how we could improve the current system, because I am one who dislikes to take a negative stance against something without having an alternative to speak about. So I now pose this alternative to you all today....
Instead of spending two years taking general education classes, why not take none at universities. Community Colleges could be there for those who aren't quite sure of what they want to do yet. These can be places where college students take more specific general ed classes to learn where they would like to end up.
For those who have an idea on a path they would like to take... let's say business... The business major takes sixty credit hours of business courses at a university, thats two years gearing or specializing the student in all things business related. The for the next two years the student or the university helps the student set up an apprenticeship with businesses related to the concentration that the student focused on for those sixty credit hours. For the next two years the business major pays tuition for the apprenticeship to the business training them, on the job learning furthering specialization in the field and eliminating job training expenses for the company when college kids come to get jobs and actually know nothing about the business they are applying to work for. After the two years are up the student can then have an actual resume of on the job experience and the business the apprenticeship was with to begin with is more likely to hire the student right after the program is over. Considering the student has worked there for two years and understands the ins and outs of the business, it would be foolish for the student not to be accepted.
This is just an idea I have been thinking about for some time and udnerstand it may have some holes in it. That is why I am blogging about it today, to create a discussion about our higher education system and to improve upon or dismiss ideas that might not be of any help at all.