One of my professors frequently says students are not graduating college and going on to be just workers, they are going on to become citizens, community members/neighbors, parents, spouses, possibly future leaders in the political/legal realms, etc.
Basically he’s saying there’s value in learning things outside of what will specifically prepare you for a job. It’s not a bad thing to hope that an electrician or engineer have some familiarity with, say, history or psychology. Those things will affect their day-to-day lives, to an extent.
EDIT: He frequently cites a DuBois quote that’s something along the lines of education not only being to make men carpenters, but to also make carpenters men.
There’s also a CS Lewis quote that might be applicable. I can never remember it but it’s something about making men without chests and expecting them to be virtuous.
I’ve known a lot of people with pretty good skills (carpenters, plumbers, fitters, etc) that are all about being big strong man until you start throwing big words and abstract concepts around. Then they get scared and insecure.
They wouldn’t have to feel that way if they put down the hammer and picked up a book every so often.
I won’t push back on that. I strongly believe in informal learning, but also see a great value in formal academic learning- in some cases.
Like, I took some college level algebra and english/writing classes as I was working on a mechanical engineering degree. I’d go to school in the winter between seasons of cutting trees, then back to work, etc. And never actually finished the engineering degree.
Moving on from tree stuff I went into fabrication of architectural frames that use some pretty good math, but are also Very skill heavy. In doing so I was able to find and use things like the arc-chord theorem and write the equations for stuff like drill patterns, material calculations, packaging formulas, etc. that no one else there could even concieve of.
Not because I’m smart, but because I got educated. Rudimentary, but enough to get the ball rolling.
Same with the welding. I went for a 2 year course in 9 mos., then took that knowledge and skill to work to grow it. Like, last year I set out to brush up and expand my repertoire with aluminum tig. I learned how to set it up 13 years ago, but neglected the application until last year.
I’d look at it like a fire. It has to get big enough to feed itself. How big that is depends on the person. Some people only need a little spark. Others, well… you know.
There isn’t much difference in the way me & Zecarlo see education, other than he sees it more heavily on the philosophical side as the virtuous pursuit of knowledge and I’m probably a little more utilitarian <— which I learned in an ethics/philosophy class that filled the bill for electives .
The guy I mentioned is local, but pretty much wrote the book and standards to everything you described.
I bumped into him and had what has to be one of the most interesting conversations of my life, as his engineering firm is in the same building as my therapist.
Absolutely brilliant guy. Literally a who’s who in nuclear power systems engineering, and worked with Admiral Rickover to develop the naval nuclear propulsion program. @atlas13
The model just gets the words that describe what the thing you key in, which is description of an entity. Then it infers and pairs the words with the intent. So, if you want to get something done and you key in a question, it knows the entity you entered but it will pair the intent, since you asked it about the entity, with “I want info about the thing”. So, it does not recognize your actual intent unless you simply want information about the entity.
If you get the bot to keep writing, it’s going to display more and more information since it’s building on the intent even if you add more things instead of doing stuff for you.
So, you also have to define your intent clearly to prompt the model to use the thing to do what you want.
*This is an explanation for others who may not get this stuff since I remember you know the programming stuff, right? All I know is the kind of models and the labels that have to be given to it. It’s basically NLU++
This is why if anyone is familiar with Agile Management, this is why the use of User Stories for each Sprint is so crucial and each of these sprints occur in succession which build on the previous one.
Isn’t that what our primary education should be for, though? I’m looking at my undergrad transcript and I see a lot of classes that cover the same material that is covered in K-12.
History of Rock and Roll
Intro to Ancient History
Intro to electronic media and film…
Sexuality in a diverse society…
I just don’t see how this is relevant to a degree in accounting.
A lot of K-12 do not have the resources to offer those classes. The ones rich enough to usually don’t bc they know that no student would take them not necessarily out of disinterest, but rather out of opportunity cost.
Taking fun classes in HS is often counterproductive for getting into a good ug institution
Case in point, my science teacher (I had the same one all 4 years of HS across 4 classes) wanted to teach a “science of food” class. It was interesting to me and a lot of my classmates, but never got off the ground bc AP science classes were more valuable
Also, while it is true that the information in many humanities classes can be easily sourced online, without formal requirements, very few students, even interested ones, will have the time or energy to learn the information.
This is even more so the case for arts subjects, which require high effort and time to build skill
There’s also the argument of having easy classes. It’s not feasible for some, like me, to have to deal with4 stem classes a semester. Im dying with 2/semester
It may not be true across the board, but I’d say that’s a problem for K-12 to solve not college. Imo, we provide K-12 for everyone and that is where you should be experiencing the broadest number of topics.
Individuals pay for college and it’s expensive. You shouldn’t be required to take classes not relevant for your degree. If you want to, go for it. I don’t have an issue with them being available. I just think it’s a waste of money and irrelevant in regards to the purpose of a higher education.
Again, that’s just my opinion after obtaining multiple degrees.
I went to public school in Maryland and we covered all of this plus intro to accounting, business law, chemistry, biology, etc…
That was not my experience and, again, I fail to see how a class in nutrition is necessary for a degree in accounting? I shouldn’t need to pay for 3 credits in nutrition or a similar field to graduate with a BS in accounting. It’s not necessary from my point of view.
The college I went to and most colleges as far as I know, require general education across multiple disciplines. I had to take a history class and that fit my schedule. So I learned about ancient Mesopotamia. Interesting, but irrelevant.
I don’t agree with the bolded part, generally. I’m sure like most people here I’ve spent thousands of hours reading and watching videos on lifting. I’ve watched hundreds maybe thousands of hours on drawing techniques because I enjoy it (I’m not even good at it). Etc… The average daily use of social media in the US is over 2-hours. I don’t see how most people don’t have the time.
No, but it is a much more significant factor in who I am as a person than Writing for Sports Science, Art Through the Ages, and Intro to Ancient Civilizations… All things covered in HS.
Again, major in it, take it for fun, or whatever. My point is solely that it should not be required for an undergraduate degree.
This is a part of my point. This is what colleges force you to do. You just pick and choose general education to meet whatever requirements they’ve come up with.
I didnt. Of course, it was just a CC, but I had to put some forethought into my course selection. I took some ethics and psychology courses to fill that bill as they can apply to engineering in general when designing or giving consideration to different options related a given object.
Like those stupid fucking hammers that have 9 different features or functions, none of which it does well.
It goes back to “An X is a good X when it serves the function of an X well”.
There isn’t enough of that in this world (including in education/academia).
A lot of these institutions have become as fat, stupid, arrogant and lazy on easy money as a lot of their attendees.
I remember taking International Relations and having to listen to 19-year-olds explain how AQI and the Taliban were “more powerful” that the United States of America. It was their opinion, which is fine, whatever… What did that have to do with my career in accounting?
I had to take Public Speaking. I’ve given zero public speeches in my career.
I had to take a weight lifting class my freshman year. Cool, zero to do with my career in accounting.
“Writing for a Liberal Education” 3 credits = $7k. Irrelevant to my career in accounting.
“Print Marketing”. Irrelevant.
“Business Law”. Almost verbatim the exact same class I took in HS. At least I remember RC COLA. Never once has it been useful in my career as an accountant.
“Computers and Creativity” I don’t even remember what that was. Huge impact on me as a person.
“Biology: The Science of Life” I remember boiling water and counting bugs on campus with 18-year-olds (I was at least 25). Worthless.
“Geography” Gtfo…
Half of my transfer credit I couldn’t even tell you what they’re were.
There’s no doubt that you do have to put some thought into course selection for your major or even the department (For ex. I was in the school of business specializing in accounting) even at CC where I started. That’s not really what I’m referring to.
I’m not bashing on higher education. A good portion of it is just redundant and it’s not cheap.
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