Since this discussion keeps coming again and again, adding this thread:
Posts:
Past disucssions (please add):
[Rushabh Mehta] On education, again to clarify my position. I think everyone should do things they are believe in rather than do it for the sake of society or others. Most of education is just blindly following what others are doing without really thinking about the value of it and most of education turns out to be utterly useless (the “degrees” though have value in society). I am not saying there is a “right path”, just that the given path may not be right. Go to college, or don’t. Be the master of that decision.
[Rushabh Mehta] Same with work. Do something that is a labour of love. Don’t just work for money. Work because you find meaning in what you do. Don’t compromise. I assume most people in this group have the ability to find this kind of work. I am not talking about people for whom survival is the primary concern
[Akshay Dinesh] Well, are you thinking about the consequences of this worldview? Are you thinking about the irony in talking about “choose a job that makes you happy” when people do not have access to healthcare, money, free time, when people are constantly facing discrimination, etc?
[Kailash Nadh] “Do what you makes you happy” really only applies to the top, privileged strata. If yo end up being born in an impoverished and underprivileged environment, there’s no “choice”. You exist and subsist on whatever is available. Few can break out of that. Then there’s the whole caste system also on top of the economic system. I think it’s a very privileged statement to make…
[Nilesh Trivedi] “Don’t you dare encourage someone to drop out of college. That is not your kid. If that thought is entering your mind, you call their parents. Let students be students. Let the young adults have their young adulthood. As their parents, it’s scary as a hell to have an adult preying on that underdeveloped prefrontal cortex.”
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“This narrow argument that dropping out of college and focusing on interests like coding, design, and other IT related fields is practically possible with internet connection and free time and English language – that’s an argument I can agree with” ~source
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I don’t know if it’s really worth it as I’m still studying in the college, but there’s something which concerns me is how wrong they teach computer science or engineering in the classroom. Well, one might choose computer science/engineering to learn better in person. There are always ample amount of resources on in the internet, but in-person listening and learning from someone might work for the most. But it’s not happening right.
College education might be worth, if the teacher is the one with good skills. Personal suggestion teacher’s in college should start suggesting their students to think ootb and learn ootb and maintain their college studies at the same time. IDK bout other college’s but atleast in my college we are taught languages just to past cuz they think having good grades is gonna get them a decent job. Honestly speaking, for me I don’t feel college education is being worth in the diploma stage (engineering might be in the near future but hoping it won’t).
Also, the narrow minded approach - Mangesh's Blog check out the last section of Thoughts.
Just to present a flippant analogy, what are we to conclude from the fact that every married couple seems to have fights and there is a lot of unhappiness in marriages? So would a question like “Is marriage worth it?” make sense at all? Not that we do not have opinions or cannot answer yes or no. It’s just that trying to answer a question framed narrowly in that fashion is a waste of time.
Coming back to education, there are too many unstated assumptions behind questions like this. Examples:
• College education should lead to a “good job” or financial success generally. If it does not “it is not worth it”.
• Most colleges are of poor quality; so college education is not worth it.
• Everyone has a choice. Every student has the ability to decide. They can choose to go or not to go to college.
• Do what makes you happy. (the worst one of all, if I may say so.)
Once we loosen or acknowledge such assumptions, we can frame the questions differently. In my view, we then have to acknowledge that the issue is more complex, and the questions have to be much better if we want decent arguments or answers.
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Poorly framed questions do lead to better framed questions eventually leading to good insights. So, I think it is okay to start with one. I think a slightly better framing would be, “In the age of internet, with many people starting programming, etc before even finishing schooling, does one need to spend time going to a not so great college or are there better things one can do in the same time to gain the same amount of life experience (if not more) in the same time.”
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