Thursday, March 22, 2018

#ThrowbackThursday: Trade School Edition

Blowback from the Education Bubble: University of Wisconsin, Stevens Point, has proposed dropping 13 majors in the humanities and social sciences — including English, philosophy, history, sociology and political science — while adding programs with “clear career pathways” such as chemical engineering, graphic design, and fire science as a way to address declining enrollment and a multimillion-dollar deficit.

I’m all in favor of eliminating curriculums such as “social studies” – or any degree that includes the word “studies” for that matter: women’s studies, gender studies, black studies, race studies, ethnicity studies etc.

fijiisleGender Studies Majors

If that’s your area of interest save yourself and the university system a ton of dough and just spend your spare time cruising the internet for articles that support your view that these victim groups deserve special treatment. You will never run out of educational material.

There was a time when I would have argued that English and History degrees were worthwhile but given that these majors in most colleges have transmogrified to little more than a postmodern examination of how everything wrong with the world can be traced back to the white man’s imperialism, patriarchy, colonialism and wars I would support their demise. If you’re a serious student of English or History you’ll likely get a much better education at your local, old fashioned library.

To be clear, what is being proposed by the UofW - Stevens Point Board of Regents is an old, throwback concept: trade school.

shop class33

Except today instead of getting such training in high school (at no additional cost to the student) you will have to attend college for a minimum of four years (at great cost) in order to be qualified to look for an entry level job in your chosen field.

Apprenticeship

Our egalitarian model of college for everyone was never practical but that didn’t stop public universities from using the notion to greatly expand their facilities, administration and faculties on the backs of the tax payer and students who were paying the freight. What could possibly go wrong?

Home-and-education-bubble-burst

Some things never change, like good intentions and the law of unintended consequences. And blaming the inevitable demise on conservatives:

The plan to cut the liberal arts and humanities majors (see full list below) is in line with a failed attempt by Republican Gov. Scott Walker in 2015 to secretly change the mission of the respected university system — known as the Wisconsin Idea and embedded in the state code  — by removing words that commanded the university to “search for truth” and “improve the human condition” and replacing them with “meet the state’s workforce needs.”

The push away from liberal arts and toward workplace skills is championed by conservatives who see many four-year colleges and universities as politically correct institutions that graduate too many students without practical job skills — but with liberal political views. – WaPo

Linked By: Larwyn’s Linx on Doug Ross@Journal, and BlogsLucianneLoves, and Free Republic, Thanks!