I don't think the value of college was ever mainly information. That's why there have always been people who learned on their own (auto-didacts if you want to be fancy). Sure, you might have to, like, you know, go to the library and read a book, but that's not a real barrier. If going to the library is too hard, then building a personal brand or sending cold emails to people is also going to be too hard. College isn't always the right decision, but we shouldn't strawman it either.
So what is the value of college? It's hard to separate out, but I'd start with: 1) structure, 2) community, 3) mentorship, 4) hands-on practice, 5) fun.
Structure: People aren't always, or even usually, able to self-motivate in an environment with no structure. I'm pretty self-motivated, and even I've struggled to work as hard when there's no on giving me assignments and checking whether I do them. College curriculums certainly aren't perfect, but they do represent a lot of work into what a meaningful course of learning is.
Community: Complementary to the point about structure, it's easier if other people are doing it with you. A study group is often much less painful than being the only one in the library just because you know you're not the only one. Not to mention actually being able to puzzle through questions together.
Mentorship: Some professors can be inspiring or have helpful advice. This one is highly variable, but again it's something that colleges put a meaningful amount of effort into and is often much better than watching inspirational YouTube videos in your room.
Hands-on practice: Where are you going to mess around in a machine shop or chemistry lab? Where are you going to design contraptions out of PVC to shoot a basket in a competition with 10 other teams? Where are you going to get a co-op job or internship?
Fun: There's something to be said for living with a bunch of other young people, doing fun stuff together, and making potentially lifelong friends. You certainly don't have to go to college to do it, but it can be pretty awesome.
So, college is too expensive, it's not for everyone, sometimes it's mostly a credential, and it's often too far removed from the real world. But let's acknowledge the ways it does add value so that for people who are taking a different path, they're doing it with full awareness of the pros and cons. And for those facilitating different paths, we can think about how to substitute for some of the things college provides.
100% agree. There is intrinsic value to education, and short of programming our brains to be the human automatons to fit into a digital world, there is much work to do to educate our minds with humanities, civic, ethics and other aspects of being human-- which seem to be badly needed in our world today.
I love the work you are doing!
Thank you!
I don't think the value of college was ever mainly information. That's why there have always been people who learned on their own (auto-didacts if you want to be fancy). Sure, you might have to, like, you know, go to the library and read a book, but that's not a real barrier. If going to the library is too hard, then building a personal brand or sending cold emails to people is also going to be too hard. College isn't always the right decision, but we shouldn't strawman it either.
So what is the value of college? It's hard to separate out, but I'd start with: 1) structure, 2) community, 3) mentorship, 4) hands-on practice, 5) fun.
Structure: People aren't always, or even usually, able to self-motivate in an environment with no structure. I'm pretty self-motivated, and even I've struggled to work as hard when there's no on giving me assignments and checking whether I do them. College curriculums certainly aren't perfect, but they do represent a lot of work into what a meaningful course of learning is.
Community: Complementary to the point about structure, it's easier if other people are doing it with you. A study group is often much less painful than being the only one in the library just because you know you're not the only one. Not to mention actually being able to puzzle through questions together.
Mentorship: Some professors can be inspiring or have helpful advice. This one is highly variable, but again it's something that colleges put a meaningful amount of effort into and is often much better than watching inspirational YouTube videos in your room.
Hands-on practice: Where are you going to mess around in a machine shop or chemistry lab? Where are you going to design contraptions out of PVC to shoot a basket in a competition with 10 other teams? Where are you going to get a co-op job or internship?
Fun: There's something to be said for living with a bunch of other young people, doing fun stuff together, and making potentially lifelong friends. You certainly don't have to go to college to do it, but it can be pretty awesome.
So, college is too expensive, it's not for everyone, sometimes it's mostly a credential, and it's often too far removed from the real world. But let's acknowledge the ways it does add value so that for people who are taking a different path, they're doing it with full awareness of the pros and cons. And for those facilitating different paths, we can think about how to substitute for some of the things college provides.
100% agree. There is intrinsic value to education, and short of programming our brains to be the human automatons to fit into a digital world, there is much work to do to educate our minds with humanities, civic, ethics and other aspects of being human-- which seem to be badly needed in our world today.