Discussion Do you think the higher education system is corrupt?

[littlelady774]

First off, I'm in the US- college is definitely not cheap.
A lot of people go way into debt to get a worthless liberal arts degree that offers very little- if any- return investment or job prospects. Many of these kids were lied to and told that in order to get a good job, they needed college- doesn't matter the degree. They were told "do what you love and the money will follow"
Yeah right.
Tuition is super inflated and tax payers are funding very worthless studies that do not give back to society.
The reason I ask is because one of my professors is trying to persuade me to get a PhD in linguistics because of my very high GPA. I am very interested in the subject- don't get me wrong- but getting paid to do research in such a field, which I would more consider a hobby, would feel wrong to me. I'd be a parasite.
The paycheck would be from inflated tuition and taxpayer money- for researching purely theoretical ideas that do not benefit society.
Do you think universities are just corrupt businesses?

 

[stellabelle]

It is a for profit system. I used to tell my classmates that the colleges aren't here to help you find a job, they're here to sell you something. Choose your majors wisely.
It's a damn gold mine. Yes, there are degrees that will help people get into a high paying field, but not with these offbeat majors.

 

[Plankter]

I don't think there's any institution in any capitalist country that isn't corrupt. I can't specifically comment on colleges though..

 

[waived]

First off, I'm in the US- college is definitely not cheap.
A lot of people go way into debt to get a worthless liberal arts degree that offers very little- if any- return investment or job prospects. Many of these kids were lied to and told that in order to get a good job, they needed college- doesn't matter the degree. They were told "do what you love and the money will follow"
Yeah right.
Tuition is super inflated and tax payers are funding very worthless studies that do not give back to society.
The reason I ask is because one of my professors is trying to persuade me to get a PhD in linguistics because of my very high GPA. I am very interested in the subject- don't get me wrong- but getting paid to do research in such a field, which I would more consider a hobby, would feel wrong to me. I'd be a parasite.
The paycheck would be from inflated tuition and taxpayer money- for researching purely theoretical ideas that do not benefit society.
Do you think universities are just corrupt businesses?

Human activity is used by and for private interest and not by and for the commons. We often don't have a choice but to reify it with our activity in order to survive.The parasites are the ones benefiting from that dynamic. I wouldn't feel guilty doing what you like because I don't see you being an active advocate of a harmful process, It doesn't appear as if you are rationalizing it. Theoretical ideas can be beneficial, linguistics definitely can be beneficial and maybe even on the topic of tuition and other facets of education. (I'm interested in linguistics too, what subfield(s) are you interested in?)

 

[Kyrok]

The system has some corrupt elements, but that includes promoting university education beyond where it should be valued.

The job situation for humanities PhD is horrendous. Unless your have an excellent pedigree, you'll not find a TT job... and even an Ivy PhD rarely gets you a job at a half-decent university.

I'm not sure how bad on the badness scale the Lingistics job market is, but I know an Oxford Lingistics D.Phil whose only work is freelance translation.

 

[lost illusions]

I feel the educational system is corrupt. In my case, I was in a Mormon backed school which didn't incorporate common core teaching. I was lucky to be educated here dispite having different views. I have family in Sacramento California and the education there is very politically motivated and aspersions are put into focus groups

 

[Life sucks]

The whole academic thing is bullshit. I love knowledge but academics is not about being knowledgeable, it is about controlling people and what they know so they become puppets for corporations.
I've completed my studies and people tell me why I don't get a job. I quitted my previous job and don't think about new ones. I'll either work as freelance and get money without the need for academic bullshit or just ctb and quit the stupid life.

 

[littlelady774]

Human activity is used by and for private interest and not by and for the commons. We often don't have a choice but to reify it with our activity in order to survive.The parasites are the ones benefiting from that dynamic. I wouldn't feel guilty doing what you like because I don't see you being an active advocate of a harmful process, It doesn't appear as if you are rationalizing it. Theoretical ideas can be beneficial, linguistics definitely can be beneficial and maybe even on the topic of tuition and other facets of education. (I'm interested in linguistics too, what subfield(s) are you interested in?)

I understand it can be beneficial if it is applied linguistics- that is ESL teaching and speech pathology, but say if it is just in theoretical linguistics- which, essentially what a PhD would be- how would that benefit society?
For example, my professor was telling me that he gets paid to do research on the syntax and phonology of dead languages.
What's the point? What does that contribute?
I mean, I asked him if he felt guilty at all essentially being paid for a hobby at the taxpayers expense and from inflated tuition costs. I know I would.
Human knowledge is good, but should really be federally funding this and paying people to publish works on more or less useless information?

 

[littlelady774]

(I'm interested in linguistics too, what subfield(s) are you interested in?)

I like it all :) mostly morphology and syntax. 2nd language acquisition really interests me and using that knowledge to help ESL students.
What about you?

 

[Angst Filled Fuck Up]

My brother's a professor and has really gone off his work. He's been saying for years how he feels it's just indoctrination. He doesn't like how limited teaching is - how curriculums are set in stone, how the professors have almost no wiggle-room to be themselves anymore. Also the no-kid-left-behind mentality and kow-towing to the underperforming students just to ensure they pass everything and keep the school's numbers looking good.

 

[littlelady774]

My brother's a professor and has really gone off his work. He's been saying for years how he feels it's just indoctrination. He doesn't like how limited teaching is - how curriculums are set in stone, how the professors have almost no wiggle-room to be themselves anymore. Also the no-kid-left-behind mentality and kow-towing to the underperforming students just to ensure they pass everything and keep the school's numbers looking good.

Wow. What does he teach?

 

[989-X]

The United States educational system as a whole is a failure. Students are indoctrinated instead of educated from 1st Grade to High School graduation. The life, creativity, and practical development of children are destroyed throughout this long and difficult road and older generations are confused on why depression statistics are rising. I've seen elementary school force the "college starts here" rhetoric onto children who's ages aren't even in the double digits. We train people to work, not develop as smarter, more empathic human beings. While with college, there is more freedom and room to develop and actually care about the things you study, the crippling debt that people fall into when other countries are prospering educationally is ridiculous.

 

[15dec]

I think that in the UK kids have to make important decisions far too quickly.

When you're 13 or 14 you decide which subjects you want to do for your GCSEs, which can narrow your choices for when you apply to college or sixth form when you're 16. Then whatever you choose post-16 influences what you can study at university. So if you make a mistake in any of those choices you effectively lock yourself on a track for a job you might not even like.

Also, when you're in college or sixth form you're either doing 3 or 4 A Levels or one BTEC course, possibly with an A Level on the side, so in my opinion there isn't much variation, which is good if you're certain on a specific career as you can put all your energy in the subjects that matter. If you're not certain though (and let's face it, not many teenagers are certain on one specific job) it's pretty easy to end up studying subjects that you end up not enjoying or not wanting to pursue further.

I think it'd be better if we had to study all subjects until we were 16, or maybe 18, and possibly with the option to drop those that we don't like at a certain point. I think it'd make education a lot more enjoyable if you only studied what you were interested in learning about and didn't have to make decisions that narrowed your future choices. For me, having to pick my GCSEs and either A Levels/BTEC it was a matter of choosing between several subjects I was interested in, and I did that based on the job I wanted at the time, which has since changed.

Progressing to university now means I have a much more limited scope, unless I find courses that aren't fussy about what course(s) students took and more concerned about the grades you got. There probably are courses like that but I know a lot require specific A Levels or a specific BTEC.

 

[wiIIow]

We train people to work, not develop as smarter, more empathic human beings.

This is exactly it. They want us just smart enough to follow orders and go to work, but not smart enough to think for ourselves. The entire education system is fucked from the getgo.

I started having a very difficult time with school in about 8th grade, and was made to believe that because of this I was a stupid waste - I later found out for myself that this wasn't true, and rather the environment which these schools create stifle the creatives, the ones who dare to think a bit differently than the linear curriculum they are presented with. We are never taught how to learn, only memorize. We are taught that the bell/tone means the end (of the shift).

Just as an example - they way they teach fucking math now? Dude, it's out of control. Sheets and sheets full of work to arrive to an answer, when there is a much simpler way. I found out for myself how to do it this way, and was punished for arriving at the correct answer in the wrong way. I didn't follow orders.

The only time I thrived was when I took a couple online courses, in order to get enough credits to graduate high school. I worked on them for one open period each schoolday, I was left the fuck alone and allowed to do my work my own way and at my own pace - I completed a semester's worth of work in two weeks. At that point I was like, "wait a sec..."

I'm rambling at this point, and I'd better stop myself here because I could go on and on about how fucked up our education system is - from elementary to high school, to the exclusive club of college which presents itself as this promised land of opportunity, only to leave you with a lifetime of debt and no job prospects. I can't tell you how many fucked up stories I have from my experience in high school, and how many people I've talked to who are drowning in debt and can't find jobs. It's so saddening to me, things should not be this way. But as long as the system remains profitable, it probably won't ever change.

 

[Othermind]

U.S kids are so brainwashed by neoliberalism that they deem "worthless" any kind of knowledge or field of study that cannot be sufficiently exploited by capital.
Wow.

 

[ReadyasEver]

I went to college in 80's and had a lot of professors who were older. I was in engineering and was challenged quite bit, their teaching style was different then than it is now in my opinion. When I went tuition was 800 US per semester no matter how many hours you took, total yearly expense was 4500 US. A big sum then but manageable. Where we are at in higher learning in 2019 is a travesty.

 

[mattwitt]

They are there to make money just like any other business venture in this free market capitalistic society we live in.

 

[waived]

I understand it can be beneficial if it is applied linguistics- that is ESL teaching and speech pathology, but say if it is just in theoretical linguistics- which, essentially what a PhD would be- how would that benefit society?
For example, my professor was telling me that he gets paid to do research on the syntax and phonology of dead languages.
What's the point? What does that contribute?
I mean, I asked him if he felt guilty at all essentially being paid for a hobby at the taxpayers expense and from inflated tuition costs. I know I would.
Human knowledge is good, but should really be federally funding this and paying people to publish works on more or less useless information?

Consider how much research and production is entirely held out of the commons for obscene profit at the cost of human life and is touted as a series of growing fields and a bright future for us all, as valid contributions. I think it is society that I would question in this schema. Why not choose leisure over value of contribution?

I like it all :) mostly morphology and syntax. 2nd language acquisition really interests me and using that knowledge to help ESL students.
What about you?

I'm interested in pragmatics, discourse analysis, socio/anthropological linguistics.

 

[Final Escape]

Yes, read the book called Worthless by Aaron Clarey before u go to college so u don't get screwed and end up in debt.

 

[DontFearTheReaper]

Every modern education system, none are free in what they teach.

 

[Final Escape]

Every modern education system, none are free in what they teach.

If they actually educated kids in the public school there would be no more government education, since there would be a conflict of interest if kids actually learned to think, and the truth about history, governments lol! You are taught to be obedient and not be self determined. If you knew the stats, facts, and truths about at least the most important aspects of life, u can at least avoid really bad decisions early that are easy to avoid. You might still make mistakes but there are many life altering ones that are avoidable if u get educated well. When I first heard someone say the three things u need to do to get into the middle class I was like why couldn't anyone tell me this in public school lol! Graduate high school or at least get a GED, get and keep a job for at least a year, don't have kids outside of marriage. This was the three things to get into the middle class. Obviously u will have to remain employed but starting out you won't make a lot because u gradually move into better jobs hopefully.

 

[littlelady774]

Yes, read the book called Worthless by Aaron Clarey before u go to college so u don't get screwed and end up in debt.

I love Aaron Clarey
So happy someone else here knows about him

 

[Arak]

@littlelady856 ,

Regarding your personal situation, I think there is nothing wrong in following that study if that means you can pursue research in linguistics.
Especially if you're good at it. It's not a perfect world, and unless you consider all state funded activities immoral (purist) I don't see an issue.
Whether it would pay off on the long run is something different.

 

[JustAboutDone]

I like it all :) mostly morphology and syntax. 2nd language acquisition really interests me and using that knowledge to help ESL students.

Not trying to be flattering here but you sound super smart :-)
I'd do what you love right now. That's the most important thing. There are all sorts of things and ways to be of benefit of society - just being you is one. If there is something different you want to do later, you can always gravitate towards that but it seems like you have a real talent for what you are doing x

 

[littlelady774]

@Arak
I love your post about the world not being perfect. I guess I never thought of that..

@JustAboutDone
You're such a sweetheart Thank you.
I guess just like Arak said, the world isn't perfect.. Maybe I should consider giving it a shot.

 

[JustAboutDone]

@Arak
I love your post about the world not being perfect. I guess I never thought of that..

@JustAboutDone
You're such a sweetheart Thank you.
I guess just like Arak said, the world isn't perfect.. Maybe I should consider giving it a shot.

Go for it! Golly, it can be rare in this world to find the combination of something that we are good at AND that we enjoy doing :-)

 

[lost illusions]

If they actually educated kids in the public school there would be no more government education, since there would be a conflict of interest if kids actually learned to think, and the truth about history, governments lol! You are taught to be obedient and not be self determined. If you knew the stats, facts, and truths about at least the most important aspects of life, u can at least avoid really bad decisions early that are easy to avoid. You might still make mistakes but there are many life altering ones that are avoidable if u get educated well. When I first heard someone say the three things u need to do to get into the middle class I was like why couldn't anyone tell me this in public school lol! Graduate high school or at least get a GED, get and keep a job for at least a year, don't have kids outside of marriage. This was the three things to get into the middle class. Obviously u will have to remain employed but starting out you won't make a lot because u gradually move into better jobs hopefully.

Agreed

 

[Sixfeetunder]

Yes. I also wish that instead of telling everyone to go to college, people would explore all options and not look down on any of them as inferior. I wish that kids would grow up hearing they have several choices. They can go to trade school, join the military, be a stay at home parent or house wife/husband, or go to college. They could get a certificate from a community college (such as EMS) and do that, or they could earn any degree from an associates to a doctorate. And if that doesn't work out and jobs such as retail work best for them, than so be it. There's nothing wrong with working in retail or being a janitor or something for a career.

Instead, people are told they need at least a bachelors, but it can be in anything. And since so many people are going to college, it's basically useless. There's a saying that a bachelor's degree is the new high school diploma. It's true.

 

[Taylored]

Most higher education is useless. Since you can get a great job without any

 

[lost illusions]

Something that should be taught weather at home or school is the world is going to kick your ass no matter how good or smart you are