- Pregnancy
- Baby & Toddler
- Parents
- Getting Pregnant
- Baby Names
- Product Reviews
-
Registry
- Community
-
More
Want a personalized experience?
Download the free app
Babies: 3 - 6 Months
My UO re: education
I think a lot of people are going to disagree with me, but oh well.
I think it is too easy to obtain a degree (not financially, but intellectually). I feel like these things are practically handed out. All you have to do is pay tuition and attend the classes. It annoys me to no end when I see people's mediocrity being rewarded. I don't care how much effort you put into your classes. If you do not have a solid comprehension of the subject matter, you should not receive a degree. If that means you study every night and have to take classes multiple times, so be it. If you can learn it all with zero effort, I'm cool with that, too. Screw the whole "A for effort" thing.
College is not supposed to be a lesson in work ethic. A college diploma is meant to distinguish individuals who have actually achieved a higher knowledge of a subject.
This discussion has been closed.
Re: My UO re: education
I think it depends on the school and the program.
And thats why people ask for GPA (at least every job I've applied to has). At least it then shows if you just got a degree with all Cs or if you excelled.
But to some extent I agree with you.
Really? I've honestly never been asked for my GPA but I've only had 2 jobs since school.
OK, so basically, do you think someone should have to earn a certain grade in order to demonstrate their mastering of the subject? Like, a C isn't good enough, you need to earn an A? Or how would it work?
All I know is that my college didn't just handout degrees. You had to have a certain GPA to continue every year and to eventually graduate. If you're saying that GPA standard should be higher than 'C', I can get on board with that.
But I also think a college degree DOES indeed mean you have a strong work ethic and can balance many things at once, which is something attractive to perspective employers. How many people do you know who majored in History and ended up working as something other than a Historian or History teacher (for example)? A BAZILLION!
A college degree shows that you are capable of dedicating yourself to something and succeeding at it. As well as showing that you have learned something more than the average person who did not attend a secondary education institution.
Maybe its just my profession. (teacher)
Although DH is in finance and has been asked for his GPA. One job he applied for asked for Grad, undergrad and HIGHSCHOOL transcripts. Crazy.
Rumor has it, Google even asks for middle school info.
This. Which is why I post my GPA on my resume.
However, my DH said that his company just hired someone from a tech university with a 4.0 GPA and the guy is completely inept... so who knows. I know that for every A I got in college, I worked for it, but maybe that's where school reputation comes in.
I am in education as well ( School Counselor, before becoming a SAHM 2 yrs ago) and have been asked for GPA as well.
Pretty much.
I guess the unpopular part of my opinion is that the primary purpose of higher education is the pursuit of truth. I didn't get a degree in math to prepare for a career. I did it because I was passionate and curious about mathematics. I'm a big fan of the liberal education.
True. It just bothers me that college serves as a sort of technical school for a lot of people.
I agree with you. I am a HUGE proponent of a liberal arts ed and I went to school to learn, not for job training.
That being said, its a luxery to be able to have that attitude. Not everyone can take 4 years of their lives (or more) and pay to learn like that. I am grateful I was able to, but I realize not everyone can. Therefore, the job training aspect of college is important as well.
Agreed. I feel like many colleges (and graduate schools) award grades based on a ridiculously curved standard. A student who really should've gotten a C now has an inflated grade that is not indicative of their abilities. All it shows is that the school has students who appear to do well on paper. It's really for the school's benefit to maintain their U.S. News ranking.
I went to graduate school for molecular biology and I've seen complete morons be awarded a Ph.D....I mean, people who can't calculate the concentration of a salt solution or don't understand the difference between pH and pKa. This is stuff they should have learned in HIGH SCHOOL chemistry. To have reached that level of education and not know how to do these things is sad and pathetic. Yet people call them 'doctor', mostly because the Ph.D. program didn't want to have to report that they had to kick out these students (and indirectly, take the blame for accepting these students in the first place).
Oh, I am not denying that. This is all "in a perfect world".
And I'm not bashing med school or law school. I'm just saying you should do those things out of intellectual curiosity and not greed.
I went to college for the education as well. I'm a Global Studies major with minors in French and Philosophy! ANd I now work in Insurance.
I guess my point is, I think a degree is both things. A demonstration of work ethic and the ability to learn anything and learn it well. And its also a demonstration of higher learning and intellect.
This exactly! When I was in graduate school, I could not believe that a student who spent a few hours on a major project the day it was due received an A like I did, as most of us researched and worked on our projects for WEEKS.
I interview/hire as part of my job & we ALWAYS ask GPA for that very reason. But really we have no way of verifying it so the person could be lying...
DD1 born 5/24/10.
Missed M/C at 14 wks Feb 2012.
DD2 born 5/14/13.
Missed M/C at 9 wks July 2015.
I think it really depends on the program. I had two majors, one in Elementary Education and another in Spanish. I have to say that my classes for Elementary Education were an absolute breeze, I never studied and walked out with easy As. However, my classes in Spanish were ridiculously hard.
I found the same thing when I worked on my Masters degree and additional endorsements. My Masters degree through the College of Liberal Arts was brutal. My thesis took a year and was over 100 pages. My endorsements in the Education field were simple. My friends who received Masters degrees from the College of Education wrote a 10 page thesis, and then completed that thesis as a group project.
My experiences were at two different universities, so it may actually say something about the standards we have for educators.
can't you ask for a transcript? thats why my interviewers always did.
I don't think I can agree with you - especially since we don't live in a perfect world.
Would I have loved to have gone to my college and gotten a degree in english lit? Sure... but how would that have paid off my student loans? Maybe because I knew I was the person ultimately paying for my college education, I went in with the mindset of bang for my buck... so I spent a lot of money getting a fairly uncommon degree, to get a high paying job. Sure, there was some interest in the field, but more importantly, there's a lot of flexibility in what jobs I can accept, so the amount of my loans doesn't bother me too much.
Any analyst job I have interviewed for has required official transcripts.
I understand what you're saying... I called it an UO for a reason, though. I really didn't expect anyone to agree.
TOTALLY disagree, especially when you look at the missions of many college and university's going back to their founding. IMO, there are very, very few programs/fields/disciplines/etc out there where it would be and should be just about subject-matter comprehension.
I do realize that my opinion contradicts the opinion of society in general, but there are those who can earn a degree with minimal effort. Learning just comes naturally to them. I think they deserve a degree just as much as the students who busted their butts to learn the concepts, and I think they deserve a degree much more than students who worked their @sses off but still don't comprehend the subject matter.
I simply believe that a degree signifies a higher level of subject-comprehension, and it lessens the value of my degree when someone who does not know the subject earns the same degree because they worked really hard for it.