tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post4929625170604598511..comments2024-03-28T21:32:26.550+00:00Comments on Bruce Charlton's Notions: Why don't people go on to higher education much younger?Bruce Charltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09615189090601688535noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-61168581415097666802010-10-23T00:58:21.774+01:002010-10-23T00:58:21.774+01:00Declining standards aside, the real problem is tha...Declining standards aside, the real problem is that most youth simply have no idea what specialisations they will be suitable for. Too many people start studying such specialisations (law, engineering, dentistry etc), or worse, finishing their degree and entering the work force before realising that their chosen specialisation was a poor choice for that individual.Architectonichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03255445529401822398noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-41343065173311262312010-10-11T16:57:07.960+01:002010-10-11T16:57:07.960+01:00Good post! A few things occurred to me--one is ho...Good post! A few things occurred to me--one is how it seems like we divide math and verbal reasoning in education and how this seems something we've done for a long time.<br /><br />Second, I wondered about whether teachers were intentionally structuring education to inhibit competition from rivals who might try to enter their fields. Professors in some real sense seem to be possibly teaching their rivals. I don't know how realistic this speculation is.<br /><br />Third, I notice that it seems institutions might commonly seem to lack the drive to be efficient, because that would mean reducing their size or the wealth that they control relative to others. If I do a good job and become more efficient in leading a department of a business, I might have a hard time justifying an expansion of my department's budget, while those who don't become more efficient could plausibly claim they've met a plateau and need more resources to develop more efficiency, it seems. I'm not sure how much this view really matches reality either, but it springs to mind.Mike Kennyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12076721303612820935noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-587504796046975162010-10-08T18:10:43.101+01:002010-10-08T18:10:43.101+01:00In America, the high schools are slowly moving tow...In America, the high schools are slowly moving towards this recognition, through the inclusion of college classes in a student's high school curriculum. In many schools, a student can be earning college credit while finishing high school, with the practical result of finishing the first two years of college requirements, the general eds, before leaving high school. About time, I say.Justinhttp://religionnewsblog.blogspot.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-54543012262842114752010-10-08T05:05:30.312+01:002010-10-08T05:05:30.312+01:00The decline in standards coincides exactly with th...The decline in standards coincides exactly with the increase in student populations. A rising tide sank all boats.xlbrlhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01931950075332608449noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-13523092658865569152010-10-07T15:52:23.966+01:002010-10-07T15:52:23.966+01:00I concur. I'm BA3 and astounded by the paucity...I concur. I'm BA3 and astounded by the paucity of my university education. Reading memoirs from fifty years ago makes me feel like Caesar staring at the statue of Alexander.<br /><br />I'm half convinced that one reason my friends rarely understand the decline in standards is simply because they've never properly been exposed to them. (Their conception of the past is a BBC drama.)Cyrusnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-50594822878775340462010-10-07T11:48:44.310+01:002010-10-07T11:48:44.310+01:00@dearieme - I find myself frequently floored by pe...@dearieme - I find myself frequently floored by people (sometimes collleagues) who ask whether there has *really* been a decline in educational standards/ certification inflation. <br /><br />Usually I am at a loss for words. <br /><br />I feel that a society which cannot acknowledge such massively *obvious* facts (or which believes such bare-faced lies as those which claim that standards have miraculously been maintained) is wilfully blind: blind to a really dangerous extent.<br /><br />But then, of course, we already knew that...Bruce Charltonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09615189090601688535noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-70448226989433580582010-10-07T11:17:42.333+01:002010-10-07T11:17:42.333+01:00(i) When in 2007 I was preparing to retire, I clea...(i) When in 2007 I was preparing to retire, I cleared out my office and was about to bin my fresher Physics notes (Edinburgh, 1964-5)when a colleague looked through them and remarked that the Field Theory I'd learnt then that was now reckoned too hard for freshers at Cambridge - it had become second year material, and optional material at that.<br /><br />(ii) Back then - i.e. before The Forces of Progress seized control of the British schools - when we met American exchange students, we all - Scots, English and Continentals - tended to be startled at how little they knew. They worked hard, mind; by God, they needed to.<br /><br />(iii) By-the-by, if you want to see just what mathematics a fine secondary school could teach to a very bright boy ca 1900, get hold of a little book called "Littlewood's Miscellany", or Littlewood's own "A Mathematical Education" and look at the maths he'd studied at St Paul's. Jesu!! And still he won only a minor scholarship to Trinity.deariemenoreply@blogger.com