Today in class we talked about education, and whether high school should be general or focused on what you want to do with your future. I meant to say the following during class but I didnt have time. I was talking to a boy who was visiting the U.S. from Germany. He had graduated from a high school similar to ours, but what he did afterwards was different from what most of us plan on doing. The students that graduated from that high school do not go straight to college but they do apprenticeships. They take a year to work in the real world and see what they might like to do with their lives. I think this is a great idea because if you apprentice at a job that you love then you know that the four years you spend at college will be directing you towards a job that you will enjoy. I think this approach would work better than the American way, because many American students waste time during their college years before deciding on a major or lose credits when they realize they should switch majors. Worse, they may feel trapped in a particular career that they find they don't like after they've wasted the time and money on four years of college.
--Callie
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I think that's a great idea and I wish it was more accepted in the US. People who take a year off before college to find what they truly love doing are frowned upon, and I don't agree with that at all. It's become the standard to go to college right after high school even if you have absolutely no idea what you want to do with your future. We do get to experience a little of these apprenticeships by interning, which is virtually the same thing, except done after education in the field.
-Sammi
I think this idea is a good one. However I don't necessarily think that all students should become apprentices after high school. It may be the right course for those people to take that don't have any idea what they want to do in life. However, for those students that have a good idea about what they wish to do, I believe college is the right next step. No one can guarantee that the first apprenticeship someone gets will be one that they enjoy doing. Wasting years in college while switching majors is the same thing as wasting years in multiple apprenticeships. I believe that students with some idea of what they want to do in life should go to college, while other students with absolutely no clue could try apprenticeships.
--Alexis
Apprenticeships are becoming increasingly unpopular in Europe. More and more people usually just get their Matura (i.e. SAT-esque test) and go straight to university in Europe. Taking a year off, that's not something exclusive to Europe. I have American friends who took of a year before going to college, to look at the world etc. And, as stated, internships are relatively common.
But I wish the option were more open. I've never been a fan of the ridiculous measures some people go to get into college. They seem to sacrifice having an actual prerequisite knowledge of what they're to study, for silly little acts that look good on transcripts. The wrong people are admitted into college too often, people who have no enthusiasm for what they are studying, but aimlessly work hard. i.e. The preppy academic types. These little dirt clogs in the drain that is uni. I could endlessly insult. They are meaningless machines. More people should actively pursue an interest right now, even if it may not show up on a college transcript.
I think apprenticeships have good ideas behind them but they also have many faults in our society. For instance, during the course of the apprenticeship, one might find what they truly love and feel that they wouldn't have to go to go back to school to study it since they have first hand experience. That would cut the educational process short and most likely set those back who decided to go down that road. Lots of colleges nowadays have programs where students can in tern and study abroad so they get that sort of grasp. I even know of some colleges that have five year programs where one of those years is dedicated to real work experience.
I agree about the fact that we should have more freedom in our futures though. Also I don't think that a high school transcript shouldn't measure an individual as a person. Nobody is going to look better than how they do on paper. In turn most of those transcripts are falsified to some degree. Just another reason why this country's educational system is flawed.
-Joe
I don't think it well-known but there is an summer apprenticeship/ internship course offered at our school. Basically you find in someone a profession that you wish to go into and you work with them for 40 hours in the summer. I think that is a great opportunity to experience the profession you might want to go into.
Also, I think its ok to not know what you want to do when entering college. College is a great experience because you are exposed so much knowledge that you can take advantage of . I think it is good to experiment and change your mind while you have the opportunity because in the real world it hard to change a career.
-Ashley Hill
A few universities are now advertising that spending a year in a foreign country or doing an internship before beginning one's first year of college presents an advantage to getting accepted to one's prefered school. Princeton, for example, recommends that one with plans to apply the school contacts the school about taking that year off and applying the following year.
I would love to take advantage of that oppurtunity, however, medical school, which I plan to pursue, adds many years to the educational process already. There is no way that I can afford to be without a solid job for extra years, especially with the current prices of college education, interest on college loans, and travel expenses! Finding time for any source of income aside from being an intern or resident is impossible. I hope to spend a semester abroad at some point in college, but who knows if that can actually fit into the necessary schedules, etc. I would love to know about any available oppurtunities for pre-med students to get the same experiences as someone who can take that year between high school and college without falling too far behind in their future professions, "education debts," or otherwise.
-Jen
I think that there needs to be a revival of the beatnik culture. It's been diluted to pathetic sub-cultures such as goth. There has to be a movement that symbolizes following your own ambitions and rejecting the nonsense that the academic world contains. People who learn for intelligence and insight into the universe. Contrast this with some of the people who get into Ivy League institutions, I've met some and they are intellectually worthless in many regards. Not just the lazy legacies either. My friend from Orange County, who's quite a witty fellow, parodied it quite well. We both took a course at BU, and we had a big lecture on how to get in. This guide, essentially told us what the Uni." is looking for from it's students." My friend, smiling and without a bit of hesitancy asked "would it help any if my parents donated a building to the campus?" The guide didn't answer that question, I wonder why?
I think current economic times have really impacted the way students approach their education. Since the job market right now is really in a downward spiral while prices rise on alot of items (such as gas) students feel the pressure rise on them because when we graduate from high school/college it will be harder for us to get jobs. Thus, students feel more pressure to get into the most prestigious colleges in order to have the best chance of landing solid jobs.
If you look back into history beatnik cultures who strive to learn just for the sake of learning have risen when economic times have been good. A great example is the 60s which fed off the economic prosperity of the 1950s. I am sure the lots of people do wish to learn for learning's sake but it just is not feasible to do that in the current state of the national/global economy.
-Tyler H
Well, lets not forget the Bohemians, who preceded the Beatniks. They lived in poverty, sometimes voluntarily. Money is not a huge deterrent to those with passion. The culture just has to promote it.
I think that there needs to be more dissent in education. For instance, when one hears Voltaire in the classroom how many times does one hear him insulted as being an unoriginal hollow rhetorician following in the long legacy started by Cicero? Never. Nearly all common opinions are always preserved, making our education all the more common. It's a shame.
We also don't have enough witty homosexuals (or even metrosexuals) in the vein of Oscar Wilde or Gore Vidal. That's something completely missing here.
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