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lifelong university

force everyone to take a little bit of school a year for life
  (+7, -4)
(+7, -4)
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instead of cramming 4 years of university in our post-high school years in the theoretical-based "vacuum" of school, then going out into the "real world" where everyone has forgotten the idealism of that learning - keep everyone learning and working simultaneously. that way we get that passion to improve, to look for meaning, yet we can apply it to our life's work.

i think it would give more vitality to our lives, keep us enthusiastic and allow us to grow.

oh yeah, and it should all be subsidized (or free) ....the gov. might actually SAVE money rather than all those loans in so many condensed years.

joshdavi, Oct 12 2001

Criticalweb http://criticalweb.iwarp.com
critical internet studies [joshdavi, Oct 12 2001, last modified Oct 04 2004]

The Open University http://www.open.ac.uk/frames.html
Apart from the volunary nature of the OU this is pretty much your idea. [Aristotle, Oct 12 2001, last modified Oct 04 2004]

Civilian Institute of Technology http://www.brightid...-9F8B-00A0C932F0D2}
Yet another shameless plug. [LoriZ, Dec 20 2001, last modified Oct 04 2004]


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Annotation:







       Nice thought, but there are plenty of jobs which shouldn't be attempted without several years of advanced education. On-the-job training in major surgery doesn't seem to be a good idea. On the other hand, many employers (including mine) are happy to provide, and pay for, training for staff. Even without formal courses, it's often possible to learn as you go along.
angel, Oct 12 2001
  

       I do think this kind of 'lifelong learning' is a worthy idea (excepting doctors, surgeons and such-like, as angel says), but I'm not sure how this differs from the work-funded part-time courses that exist in the real world, and of which there's tons. Granted, they tend to be business and management bollocks - we're not exactly talking PhD's in History of Art - but they are often formal qualifications. My own company have said they'd happily fund my MSc project, if I were to bother my arse to do it.   

       What you'd miss out on with this, though, is the four years of intensive training in loafing, scrounging, living on the bread-line, getting stoned, getting laid, getting wasted, and getting up *at some point during the day* by which the student is prepared for the post-university twenty-something Spaced/Slacker life-style that goes with all Arts or Humanities degree and even many Science degrees. I often think those four years of starvation, poverty, physical ordeal and chemical imbalance are the modern equivalent of the three-day vision-quest by which the young tribal warrior learns both valuable survival skills and their own true nature. You don't get that from the Open University (which is, come to think of it, the baked version of this idea).
Guy Fox, Oct 12 2001
  

       <rant>You can’t mention University and ‘the real world’ in the same idea and not irritate me, sorry. While one will learn some ‘real world skills’ in study, that should not be the point of a university degree. Degrees should facilitate meta-learning and critical thinking. It irks me when employers whinge about a lack of ‘skilled’ graduates.</rant>   

       Anyway, this idea is Baked: study part time. Your day will go something like this: 5am – 8am, getting up and going to work; 8am – 5pm, work; 6pm – 10pm, classes and lectures; 10pm – 1am, study. Repeat for between six and eight years. Not my idea of fun.
sdm, Oct 12 2001
  

       Actually angel, medicine is one of the few jobs that require learning and examinations whilst working. During the first year as a junior doctor, doctors are learning and training to become an MD. After that, the doctor will have to learn, and take examinations in his/her chosen profession (GP, anaesthetics, surgery etc.)
CoolerKing, Oct 12 2001
  

       [CoolerKing]: Yes, I know that medicine requires learning while working, but that is not (I hope) achieved by giving a just-out-of-high-school appointee a scalpel and having him learn on a real patient.
angel, Oct 12 2001
  

       I know at my Uni, if I die in the final semester of my course, I get the degree anyway.
sdm, Oct 13 2001
  

       I couldn't agree more … all undergrad; all the time.   

       Checkthrough line of the future:
Would you like fries today? On a scale of 0-10; with zero being "No, hell no!", and ten being "Yes, and I'd like to try the Katsup, too!"
reensure, Oct 13 2001
  

       Perhaps we are missing the point. I dont see the genius of continuing university as in skills training or "co-op" but rather as in continuing to retrain and refresh that "critical thinking" whose grasp sometimes slips after we graduate and enter a workforce so infested with politics, material concern, competition, etc etc.   

       Could be undergrad or grad but either way theres no need to compartmentalize our life into "learning" and "working". why not make it a continuing process of both.
candide, Oct 25 2001
  

       Dog how I wish we could decompartmentalize learning and working!
LoriZ, Oct 26 2001
  

       If you think education is expensive, try igorance! +1 for improving society in a tangible way.
cameron, Oct 26 2001
  


 

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