I wonder what that's like. I tell my daughter that you can be really smart all of your life through high school, then go to college and find out you're dumb. At least, that's what happened to me. I chose aerospace engineering as my major. Being at the bottom of the class intellectually was a good experience, because I had never learned before to admit I don't understand and to ask for help. Of course, I also had instructors who really wanted me to learn.
I have no idea how this works in subjects where there is no right answer and you essentially get a degree based on how well you bullshit about obscenely ludicrous topics.
That's how most politicians are getting re-elected. Make shit up that pits one group against another and bitch, rant, rave about it for 6 months. It works well for them.
Ideally the subjective courses are about logic and reasoning. The subject itself being useful from a pure information standpoint and a ground on which to engage in open debate.
The original goal of the liberal arts was to instill in men a gigantic bullshit detector as well as give such persons useful information about a subject matter. That, and to make them into persuasive individuals that could advocate for their reasoned views.
Graduated with a degree in History from a middle-brow university that you would have never heard of if it weren't for a certain Steve Carell comedy. My educational credentials are completely worthless, and am not even required to bullshit about obscenely ludicrous topics. I guess my advantage over you is that I was pretty clear in the 11th grade that I didn't have the intellectual chops to do anything seriously meaningful (like engineering).
Well the humanities were actually rigorous and elite not that long ago. My grandmother was a classicist and linguist fluent in multiple Romance languages plus Greek and Latin. English grammar has complicated rules and tenses, but they weren't simply b.s. opinion essays. Her sort of education required rare ability and serious, sustained study. It was rare for anyone to have a degree then, just a few percent iirc. Now a degree is still not utterly common, but it's way more prevalent and now a majority of Americans have at least some college exposure.
Degrees used to be something for the wealthy or the really bright. After WW2 the GI Bill led to a rapid expansion in college and while this was good, it was not without issues.
I wonder what that's like. I tell my daughter that you can be really smart all of your life through high school, then go to college and find out you're dumb. At least, that's what happened to me. I chose aerospace engineering as my major. Being at the bottom of the class intellectually was a good experience, because I had never learned before to admit I don't understand and to ask for help. Of course, I also had instructors who really wanted me to learn.
I have no idea how this works in subjects where there is no right answer and you essentially get a degree based on how well you bullshit about obscenely ludicrous topics.
That's how most politicians are getting re-elected. Make shit up that pits one group against another and bitch, rant, rave about it for 6 months. It works well for them.
You get a social science degree or a humanities degree and work in professional counseling.....
Ya know - live laugh love
Ideally the subjective courses are about logic and reasoning. The subject itself being useful from a pure information standpoint and a ground on which to engage in open debate.
The original goal of the liberal arts was to instill in men a gigantic bullshit detector as well as give such persons useful information about a subject matter. That, and to make them into persuasive individuals that could advocate for their reasoned views.
Graduated with a degree in History from a middle-brow university that you would have never heard of if it weren't for a certain Steve Carell comedy. My educational credentials are completely worthless, and am not even required to bullshit about obscenely ludicrous topics. I guess my advantage over you is that I was pretty clear in the 11th grade that I didn't have the intellectual chops to do anything seriously meaningful (like engineering).
Bullshitting though...that shit pays.
I have never watched Steve Carell.
Bullshitting is a useful skill, I guess. I'm on the autism spectrum, so I suck at it.
Well the humanities were actually rigorous and elite not that long ago. My grandmother was a classicist and linguist fluent in multiple Romance languages plus Greek and Latin. English grammar has complicated rules and tenses, but they weren't simply b.s. opinion essays. Her sort of education required rare ability and serious, sustained study. It was rare for anyone to have a degree then, just a few percent iirc. Now a degree is still not utterly common, but it's way more prevalent and now a majority of Americans have at least some college exposure.
Degrees used to be something for the wealthy or the really bright. After WW2 the GI Bill led to a rapid expansion in college and while this was good, it was not without issues.