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theo
Penny Hoarding Member
USA
588 Posts |
 Posted - 03/08/2009 : 17:30:29
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I teach business courses at a local community college; including economics and management. Our textbooks extol the marvels of specialization, pointing out that when workers, companies and nations focus on specific resources or aspects of production it maximizes efficiency. Although I acknowledge the critical role specialization has played in the rise of capitalism, I fear it has left us as individuals dependent and vulnerable. Specialization has increased our standard of living to such an extent that we have been conditioned to believe that as long as we each develop a narrow range of skill sets and knowledge; society will take care of the rest of our needs. I am very concerned that most of us will not be ready when this particular social contract is violated. My greatest fear is that the decades of prosperity and complacency have stripped from many of us the most critical skill of all, the ability to survive.
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fb101
Administrator
USA
2856 Posts |
Posted - 03/08/2009 : 19:15:51
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It's a cinch colleges no longer teach critical thinking and apparently from all the big gov't types around they no longer teach economics either.
You appear to be correct. |
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No82s
Penny Pincher Member
USA
198 Posts |
Posted - 03/08/2009 : 19:46:33
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| The whole idea of higher education when I was in school was to make an individual well rounded. Thats why we had to take all the crap that was a prerequiste but really didn't pertain to your major. CC's on the other hand always seemed to be more focused on your area of interest and get you in and out in two years. Maybe the difference between an associates and a BA or BS? Not sure. Working in the real world without having anything given to you usually teaches the survial mode to an extent. That's why the current economic situation in my opinion is good for a lot of people if only we let some fail. |
The difference between an optimist and a pessimist is that the pessimist is better informed. |
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theo
Penny Hoarding Member
USA
588 Posts |
Posted - 03/08/2009 : 21:12:56
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quote:
Originally posted by No82s
The whole idea of higher education when I was in school was to make an individual well rounded. Thats why we had to take all the crap that was a prerequiste but really didn't pertain to your major. CC's on the other hand always seemed to be more focused on your area of interest and get you in and out in two years. Maybe the difference between an associates and a BA or BS? Not sure. Working in the real world without having anything given to you usually teaches the survial mode to an extent. That's why the current economic situation in my opinion is good for a lot of people if only we let some fail.
Most CCs offer an associates degree (which is is essentially half of a bachelor's) in that they offer courses that are comparable to the first two years of a four year school. Another nice thing about teaching at a CC is the policy of academic freedom, which means as long as you teach your subject you have a lot of leeway in what you do in class. For example I'm trying to nudge my students toward more of a self reliant mindset, by explaining that things will probably get tougher and that more the skills and knowledge they acquire the better off they will be. Most don't seem to listen, but I've definitely reached a few of them. |
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Delawhere Jack
1000+ Penny Miser Member
USA
1680 Posts |
Posted - 03/11/2009 : 17:22:26
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One of the chief differences between ourselves and the ancients lies
not (unfortunately) in human nature, but rather in the proliferation
of our skills, and our institutions, and therefore in the number of
niches in which the incompetent can instal themselves as persons of
consequence.
--- Charles Fair (The Jaws of Victory p. 22.)
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"Educate and inform the whole mass of the people... They are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty." Thomas Jefferson
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Specialization: Have we taken it too far?
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