@11:02, 08/29/11

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  TimesPeople recommended a blog post:

  Aug 28, 2011

  Spending Too Much Time and Money on Education? - Room for Debate

  Given that high school and college are no longer a ticket to middle-class life, does our society devote too much time and money to education?

  The framing statement misstates the problem.

  The labor market has become a buyers market.  

  Labor is in oversupply so pricing is dominated by the low bids and buyers can now be very selective.

  For areas where education and training are required they are the price of admission to the market.

  Education and training will not force selection.  They will allow consideration for selection.

  Samuel Clemons never indulged in higher education at any institution devoted to degrees.  

  In A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court he introduces "the man factory" essentially a land grant college.  A servile peasantry cannot challenge an established feudal order.  Members of such an hereditary order have no reason to challenge it.

  • Preparation for Work

    Barbara Hofer, professor of psychology, Middlebury College
    This is the real purpose of elementary school.
    We neglect it at our peril.
    Early Childhood is the time to begin to learn these skills.
    

  
  

  • Is It a Priority to Teach the Poor?

    Pamela Burdman, education policy analyst
    I think social engineering is a good thing.  I get lots of argument.
    Most of it about Cultural Preservation.
    

  
  

  • Tailoring to Students' Interests

    Sandra Stotsky, professor of education reform, the University of Arkansas
    Wisdom is not found among the young and is rare among the old.
    The wise do not self identify.
    

  
  

  • Spend Smarter, Not Less

    Stephen Joel Trachtenberg, president emeritus, George Washington University
    The whole burden of the discussion for me.
    

  
  

  • A Good Use of a Few Years

    Jeffrey Jensen Arnett, professor of psychology, Clark University
    Far better if education so acquired were publicly supported. 
    Intellectual bumming around looks wasteful to those who did not indulge. 
    

  • Investing in a Better Life

    Cecilia E. Rouse, education economist, Princeton University
    "More generally, better-educated workers not only enjoy higher income, but also better health, decreased likelihood of committing crimes and less reliance on social programs. As such, not only are there important benefits to the individual of attaining higher levels of education but also to the rest of society."
    

  
  

  • Spending Triples; Results Slide

    Richard Vedder, director, Center for College Affordability and Productivity
    "When companies devote increasing resources to something but see little positive return, they retrench and reallocate their resources. That is what society should do with respect to education. Spending on K-12 schools, adjusting for inflation and enrollment growth, has roughly tripled over the last 50 years, yet there is little solid evidence that today’s students are better prepared for work and citizenship than their grandparents were — and even some evidence that they are less so."
    Richard Vedder is a business man who is not looking at his data.  What this essay tells me is the educational efforts are misdirected at present, not that they are unnessary.
    
    

  
  

  • A Smart Bet, but No Guarantee

    Judith Scott-Clayton, education economist, Columbia University
    " It is true that a degree is no guarantee of economic security, and the variation in earnings among those with a given level of education is higher now than in the past. But there is still no single variable under individuals’ control that better predicts economic success."
    

  
  

  
  

  • College Doesn't Create Success

    Peter Thiel, co-founder of PayPal
    Peter Thiel seems to believe that education did not make him and that a peasantry are his customers.
     
    
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  TimesPeople recommended a blog post:

  Aug 28, 2011

  Are Research Papers a Waste of Time? - Room for Debate

  Has the Internet made research papers a useless exercise for college students? Is there a better way to assess knowledge?

  
  

  I doubt there is a better way to asses understanding of a finite subject. 

  Forming an argument and supporting it with published work is effective for the student but demanding for the grader.  If the subject is old most arguments will preexist the assignment.  The grader must know them and recognize standard arguments and supports.  Google can find word strings but has a very hard time with concepts.

  Most students have a big problem with originality and formality.  Both are required in a good research paper.  Both have great benefits to our intellectual system.

I will try to get back on line later today.





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