j.r. leonard

Here’s today’s reminder that the traditional liberal arts education is on life support, and that the modern university system has become a rather expensive job-training program. Fascinating.https://twitter.com/Noahpinion/status/1068034525928673280 …

At some point students had to start responding to the huge economic incentives that the prospect of a massive debt load creates. You can't borrow $50K to study what you want. That's a luxury for people who have the money already.

Valid. It's also worth pondering what we as a society are losing by foregoing the broad base of knowledge and perspective the student theoretically gains via a broader undergraduate education, rather than on one that is merely a means to an end.

Why are we "foregoing" this? What stops students from still getting that education, except for from world class profs, for free, at their own pace, from their living room?

Thanks for catching the homophone typo, Professor. One of these days Twitter will come around to installing that edit button. If I understand you correctly, you're suggesting that the traditional liberal arts model of education is unnecessary because of... the internet?

...if that is what you're suggesting, certainly people *can* choose to study a variety of topics online, at their own pace, from their living room. But assuming that people will just take it upon themselves to study civics and philosophy seems... naive, I suppose.

Well it seems you are saying that students really WANT this education but that cost of tuition discourages Im telling you this education is free Then you seem to be saying "yes, but its naive to think they want it for FREE."

It's an interesting question... at some point in history, we seemed to share the notion that it was important to have a broad, well-rounded education, and that it was important to study letters, to to speak, regardless of economic outcomes. We've moved away from that as an ideal.