My goodness,, what have we done...

[bpate4home]

On 8/20/2022 at 12:41 PM, Pasta Burner said:

I think higher learning is great, I’ve been working on a degree for 20 years!  I think there has become too much emphasis on having that paper and too little focus on learning that counts.  I get it I know the Gen Ed are supposed to make you a well rounded individual, but for me that was scouting.  Honestly if I could afford it I’d take college classes for shitts and giggles because I love learning.  But I digress, back to @cowpuc original post, ya gotta learn the basics!

I read an article in the late '80s that explained our current 'higher' education system spot on. It explained that in the 50's and early 60's when the US was at the top of education ratings it would take roughly 65 credit hours to get a bachelors degree. With Vietnam a lot of families put their kids in college to avoid the draft. These kids had no idea of what they wanted to study. the education system came up with the Liberal Arts Degree for those that satisfied the number of credit hours with no real major area of study. The Education system realized they could increase the number of hours required to get a degree to help these undecisive individuals come to a conclusion, and also continue to keep them out of the war. By the mid 80's They decided that all students needed to be well rounded and introduced even more frivolous credit hours so that today you need 120+ credit hours for a 4 year degree in anything. They added psych, social studies phys-ed etc. in the end it was really all about the Benjamins. Raise the total cost of a degree to increase money flow. And people wonder why our Colligate system is producing the garbage workers they are.  Sorry don't mean to offend Garbage workers, they're more intelligent than a lot of college graduates today. 

[Pasta Burner]

22 minutes ago, bpate4home said:

I read an article in the late '80s that explained our current 'higher' education system spot on. It explained that in the 50's and early 60's when the US was at the top of education ratings it would take roughly 65 credit hours to get a bachelors degree. With Vietnam a lot of families put their kids in college to avoid the draft. These kids had no idea of what they wanted to study. the education system came up with the Liberal Arts Degree for those that satisfied the number of credit hours with no real major area of study. The Education system realized they could increase the number of hours required to get a degree to help these undecisive individuals come to a conclusion, and also continue to keep them out of the war. By the mid 80's They decided that all students needed to be well rounded and introduced even more frivolous credit hours so that today you need 120+ credit hours for a 4 year degree in anything. They added psych, social studies phys-ed etc. in the end it was really all about the Benjamins. Raise the total cost of a degree to increase money flow. And people wonder why our Colligate system is producing the garbage workers they are.  Sorry don't mean to offend Garbage workers, they're more intelligent than a lot of college graduates today. 

That’s very interesting and makes total sense.  As I’ve gone through over the years I also learned the meaning of “giving it the old college try”. That’s really all you have to do, try and you will succeed even if you suck.

Edited August 23, 2022 by Pasta Burner

[larrydr]

I grew up on a farm in southern Manitoba , where there very little traffic of any kind ...Every farm boy by the age of 6 years has been driving a tractor and a farm truck by 13 years old ....At 13  I made many a trip into town to pickup parts ..When I turned 16 my mother took into town to the police station for a drivers test ..So happen the police chiefs son and I were in the same class in high school ..When my turn came for the drivers test the police chief and I got into my mother car and he looks at me and says have I seen you driving in town before ...He then told me me to do a series of parking and driving events ..The whole driving test took about 10 minutes ...He looks at me and says drive back to the police station , as he walked past my mother he says to her keep an eye on him he may want to go for ice cream before he leaves town ..  

[circa1968]

Generally speaking, I look at my son's generation and think, "Man, how did we produce such morons?"  (for the record, I don't think my son is a moron, quite the opposite) Then I wonder how my parents looked at my generation when I was younger...most likely the same way and I'm certain I proved them right on occasion....And their parents probably thought the same of them.  Its the nature of young people to bush the boundaries and its the nature of society to constantly move those boundaries further out.  All we can do is instill values and morals in each of our own kids & hope they do the same for theirs and at the end of the day, we did our part to make this crazy world a better place.

Love all the stories though!  I also grew up driving tractors and farm trucks in the midwest and had fun learning how to "drive" in the snow.  I would add gravel roads to that too, some good ole fishtailing and counter steering lessons in the summer time!  Good times.

[Marcarl]

I would say that a large part of our problem today lies in the fact that the vast majority of the young ones are raised in cities where there is only schooling to give them an education. Previous generations had the privilege of a lot of us being raised in the country where experience taught us a lot and we grew up making mistakes that were good lessons for future experiences. Good for those kids whose parents stay with the program, realize the short comings of city living\apartment dwelling and stay on a program that educates the next generation properly. That is not an easy job and takes more than constant consistent input and involvement as well as dedicated for-site.