It seems now a days that getting a college education is something of a must. In many ways I support that, but does that mean college has to be confined to a campus? Many students are starting to take classes online as it becomes more popular as it can be completed from anywhere at a fraction of the price.
Don’t get me wrong, I love almost every aspect of college and being a student. I just feel like something got messed up over the years as it seems as most of what we learn can not be applied in the “real world.” This won’t be solved by taking a class online either.
I’ve heard the excuse that college is a time for you to “figure out what you want to do with your life,” or “figure out everything that you don’t want to do.” Too many students graduate without any idea of what they want to do or even how to do it and then end up in debt. The fingered can be pointed at just about everyone for this problem, whether the student didn’t try hard enough, the teacher just wasn’t qualified or even the curriculum is outdated and/or not challenging enough.
Right now the average job seeker is changing jobs every 18 months, which is causing a lot of problems in the professional world. Most of our parents have had the same job for 20-30+ years and if they were laid off, they really don’t know how to do anything else sadly, as they never were required too. Nowadays we are being taught for things that don’t even exist yet.
Way back, the educational system was based off of apprentices and master were the student would maintain and do a craft for the rest of their life. Is that to crude and rudimentary for today’s world? Are there to many niche professions that this wouldn’t work anymore? I have a double business major and a minor in information tech and am still looking for ways to apply it, with the hope that this broad range of knowledge will land me something.
Is everything moving to fast for us to be able to catch up and teach or is it time for an educational reform? How can we fix this, or is it even a problem? Please share your ideas with us as this is something that will be changing soon.
