The Daily Show - Reza Aslan

So true. Not to mention a lot of kids cannot get a bachelor's degree today without going into debt!!! The concept boggles the mind. Fresh out of college looking for your first 'real' job, and you are already shouldered with debt.

Of course, some schools are getting the point, noticing more and more colleges advertising online courses to get degrees. This needs to grow significantly more than it is growing.
 
StevePame said:
I see this issue often with my high school students. Not only in matters of religion, but with a lot of the discussions in our geography and history courses.
Click to expand...

Yes. Which is the why I so dislike the conceit that all belief methods are more or less equal. It has created a situation where people develop a faith belief system for religion - which is fine, of course. But they then use this same belief structure for the real world. And that has had tragic results. It has created the fiction that what one wants to believe trumps what is reality.
 
Ahanu said:
Perhaps many students would do better learning content knowledge online, so I say do away with the physical school for this group--or at least consider it as an option.
Click to expand...

I hear this discussion in my school district all the time. Since we're a rural school, we can't offer all the classes the bigger, urban high schools do. However, we have been able to reach out to the larger districts and are now partnering with them to do online AP classes tailored more to the students' needs. This is only the second year of the program so it is still too early to tell whether or not the results are significantly better than the brick and mortar classroom situation, but the students have been happy with the availability of courses that when they were freshman were out of the question because the class sizes would have been too small to make it economically feasible to teach in the school.

waggindraggin said:
I think college should move to an online format.
Click to expand...

My school tracks the number of graduates who end up taking online courses at the college level. We just got the numbers from last year's class and 73% (approximately 219/300 with a margin for error due to it being self reportage) took an online class, either during summer school or as part of their traditional academic year at their college/university. It seems that fully online, non-profit colleges will be here before long.
 
opening up a wide world with the internet....students all over where they had no chance for an education going to neighbors and internet cafes for personal growth, knowledge and degrees... me...I can't stand online learning... I need the classroom.
 
I'm with wil here, I can't do it online either. Taking away the physical classroom will make learning incredibly hard if not impossible for a lot of people. We all learn differently.
 
You can already get a certificate from MIT if you go through their courseware. Its technically almost like a bachelor's. I think the thing that is of concern which colleges do provide, is they provide a conscience, ironically. Its their tenure system that protects profs when they speak out about issues, and its their requirements to have some ethical training put in with technical training. Scientists have to learn about feelings. Engineers have to learn about ethics and how to spell wurds.
wil said:
opening up a wide world with the internet....students all over where they had no chance for an education going to neighbors and internet cafes for personal growth, knowledge and degrees... me...I can't stand online learning... I need the classroom.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I am the same. I need structure. I probably wouldn't have learned much if there were only online training.

I just don't think the current college system can keep working. Its so built up into research and buildings that students are though of as the engine that drives the car. So, yes they value students but they also value billions in donations, research grants and even use tuition increases to pay for buildings. Among presidents, boards and trustees there seems to be an insistence that everything is always good for the students. No matter what they do its always 'Good for the students' or 'The students want it' even if the students don't want it. "The student body wants a brand new amphitheater." "The students really want the old Charles D. Lamb building fixed up." Another trick universities pull is they will get the student body to vote on something that increases tuition, but even if the student body votes against it they then will get the student govt. to rubber stamp whatever the thing is. Never mind that every state university is already pulling down trillions from heaven. They never have enough and always are on the brink of destruction, and everything they do is always for the students.
 
I'm just wondering how this went from a discussion on Dr Reza Aslan's appearance on the daily show, to about whether or not Dr. Reza Aslan is a Scholar, and now we are discussing whether College is worth going.

my 2cents...

College is essential for teaching certain aspects of knowledge. Universities (while yes corrupt with money) facilitate a learning environment that is not as easily missed as the online and alternative counterparts. Distractions are much smaller while in class. There are some facets that I don't believe should be taught at college. A majority of Business classes for instance. At my university the attendance of most of the Business classes was so small the Professors would regularly cancel class just because noone showed up. The other option is to hold quizzes every day. In engineering, classes were usually full (well as many students were enrolled minus maybe 1-3). Classes consisted of a lot of back and forth with professors and learning the topics would have been made difficult without large bits of writing on the board. The main reason I can see the Universities being a good thing is professors get paid well, which drives most to do better/remain in a high level of teaching. I'm not against Online classes for everything, but Universities normally do have better programs with better professors. Big universities cost a lot, while I went to a sister school to a big University, and paid much less that many of my counterparts.
 
Business classes not well attended? Shouldn't be taught? I don't know where you went to school...but business is big business...maybe you were in an engineering college? And professors cancelling classes due to low attendance?? Crazy...do what you are paid to do!!

As to how the conversation got to this....through the usual circuitous route of discussion...where the diversions even become the focus of the original poster...
 
Yeah I don't really care personally, we aren't using the thread right now. If it starts interfering with actual discussions about Aslan and the topic of the original video I'm hoping people will make some room.
 
wil said:
Business classes not well attended?
Click to expand...
wil said:
And professors cancelling classes due to low attendance?? Crazy...do what you are paid to do!!
Click to expand...
literally witnessed a professor in the room without a single student, who asked if i wanted to sit in on the class so he could teach someone... this is at a state university.
wil said:
Shouldn't be taught?
Click to expand...
not stating that, but rather that it would be better taught at a tech college or online. the skills gained by and large do not help students in future endeavors and are continuously rated easiest classes at universities. for statistics purposes, more students dropped out/failed of engineering than business and there were 5x more business students. when polled at my school why students took their majors 75% made the claim that it was the easiest path to a degree. I wish I saved that article from school newspaper.
wil said:
As to how the conversation got to this....through the usual circuitous route of discussion...where the diversions even become the focus of the original poster...
Click to expand...
fair enough...
 
BigJoeNobody said:
At my university the attendance of most of the Business classes was so small the Professors would regularly cancel class just because noone showed up.
Click to expand...
No one showing up isn't the Prof cancelling the class, that is the students cancelling the class.
BigJoeNobody said:
literally witnessed a professor in the room without a single student, who asked if i wanted to sit in on the class so he could teach someone... this is at a state university.
Click to expand...
That is a dedicated professor!

Business - 358,000 degrees
Social Sciences - 173,000 degrees
Health-related Professions - 130,000 degrees
Education - 101,000 degrees

With 28 million small businesses in the US....a business degree can be helpful
 
wil said:
No one showing up isn't the Prof cancelling the class, that is the students cancelling the class.
Click to expand...
If he leaves before his time is up, it is seen as cancelling.

wil said:
With 28 million small businesses in the US....a business degree can be helpful
Click to expand...
and have you ever looked into the statistics of who is successful in a small business... It is rarely the guy with a Business degree... (or so that professor showed me that night.) Realistically the only thing a Business degree (Business Administration/Economics/etc) is useful for is a generic degree. An MBA is looked upon about as highly as a 2 yr drafter's certificate at many places I've seen. Maybe these are all local and don't apply to people who went to the Biggest schools and in other Cities, I really cannot argue that. From the dozens of hiring managers I've talked to, An MBA is almost never seen as a benefit. Management in retail and if you are lucky enough to land a job amongst the other 100s of 1000s of other people with the same credentials at a private organization.
 
Interesting....a. I've never heard of anyone speak of an MBA so disparagingly....and b. now you see how conversations move from one topic to another in a thread.
 
You know, there was a commercial on a few years ago. I forgot what they were trying to sell, but the premise was the 1st day at work. This fellow in a business suite was told to sort the mail. He scuffed at the request and told the supervisor that he had an MBA. She apologized saying that she didn't realize and then told him she'd have someone show him how to do it.
 
Namaste Jesus said:
You know, there was a commercial on a few years ago. I forgot what they were trying to sell, but the premise was the 1st day at work. This fellow in a business suite was told to sort the mail. He scuffed at the request and told the supervisor that he had an MBA. She apologized saying that she didn't realize and then told him she'd have someone show him how to do it.
Click to expand...
I know there are people who got something out of it, but most people I know with an MBA drank, smoked (you pick what and yes), and partied their way through school. When they got out they were amazed at how little they were qualified for with no work experience and several complain daily on FB about how they have an MBA and someone at work is "acting" like they know nothing. While 80% of us Engineers had a decent paying job within a month of graduation. That being said 70% of people who start engineering either drop out or change majors citing "difficulty" on most student polls.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top