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30 sats \ 5 replies \ @Undisciplined 17 Mar \ on: How important is a traditional education, and higher learning? AskSN
I have mixed feelings about this.
I enjoyed learning some of the math and physics I studied in undergrad and I definitely wouldn’t have learned it at that degree of technical detail on my own. Most likely, I would have still read about those subjects, but my understanding would be at a different level.
Similarly, the skills I use for work are not something I would have learned on my own and even if I didn’t have to work, I would still use those tools to investigate things that interest me.
All that said, most of what I learned in school was useless at the time and is long forgotten now. However, my retention of stuff I learned on my own is much better.
most of what I learned in school was useless at the time and is long forgotten now
I hear people say this a lot and used to think this myself. But I'm more cautious about making such a claim now. I think a lot of the stuff we learned have become so internalized that we forgot that we learned it from school.
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I was thinking about that as I wrote my comment, but it wasn't enough to stop me.
The human capital literature is fairly clear on this. There's very little discernable benefit to spending more time in school. Obviously, there's going to be heterogeneity in there, but for the marginal consumer of education, it probably isn't the most worthwhile pursuit.
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I feel it in my gut. It's my biggest source of job dissatisfaction: that I think for 60% of my students it's a social net negative for them to be in my classroom. I'm not saying that they're not learning anything from me, I just think their time would be better spent on something else... they're clearly not interested, motivated, or sometimes even capable of learning the material, nor will most of them use it at a high level. The whole thing is only happening because of government distortions in the education market.
Yet, it's still individually rational for me to keep doing my job... but dang if it isn't demoralizing.
Contributing to SN and bitcoin keeps my spirit afloat...
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I feel exactly the same way. I'm hoping to find some more fulfilling work that still keeps the lights on.
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Have you seen "are you smarter than a 5th grader?" That shit is gone.
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