Comments on: Education

By: Graduating — and what now? | The Changelog

Graduating — and what now? | The Changelog — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 04:02:36 +0000

[...] year ago, I re-thought the value of education to me, concluding that there is a lot of value in education for its own sake. Looking at education as [...]

By: Josh Benner

Josh Benner — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 17:44:30 +0000

Interesting post… I think the most important part of an education is that students learn how to teach themselves. More important than knowing 16th century Chinese economics, for example, is that the student is curious enough to seek out new information.

By: John Goerzen

John Goerzen — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 14:41:46 +0000

Heh, I feel rambly and cranky, and I’m younger than you ;-)

That’s an excellent point about learning specific skills that will soon be obsolete.

By: Mark Small

Mark Small — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 11:39:42 +0000

I totally agree.

If I look at things from a hiring point of view, companies used to look for well educated people because they had proved that they knew how to learn new things. Now companies are looking for pre-trained people because the companies are too lazy or cheap to train people.

From a society point of view, the loss of a well rounded middle class is just sad to see.

From an economic point of view, it is an enormous waste and drag on the whole economy to saddle the young pups with tens of thousands of dollars of debt to learn specific skills that are soon obsolete.

Now I feel like a rambling cranky old man, and I’m only 35…

By: Lars Wirzenius

Lars Wirzenius — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 07:41:15 +0000

John, you strike a nerve. I have a similar feeling: I may understand computer programming, but the older I grow, the more I realize how little I understand the world.