Suum
Fictitious Fox
For this thread, what I'm looking to discuss and hear from others would be the "one thing you'd change" in society, specifically relating to where you actually come from, of course. I think a lot of people perceive flaws in the system and I think it'd be a nice idea to have a chance to debate those calmly and politely. Please note that for this thread, the aim is to focus not on "people" and to have a rant about what is wrong about others in society, but the actual structure and systems of society, so we're looking more at areas such as: politics, the economy, law, and such topics.
To kick things off, the one thing I would change is how the education system is handled here, and I believe also in the majority of developed countries. From my perspective, I feel like education has become more of a tool to motivate, reward, and encourage youths rather than to actually equip them with the tools for the wider world. Year on year, we get record breaking grades for high school reported, and at colleges and universities we have an increasingly enormous amount of money being spent on education which is supposed to equip someone for the real world, a career, and effectively to set someone up for life. So often I see people come out of higher education with fantastic grades and an unquestioned positive outlook on their future only to find that they struggle to achieve anything at all in the real world.
At the same time, I perceive an enormous gap between what traditional colleges and universities are offering students and what industry actually demands. When I was a student, I originally perceived the same as most - the never-ending cycle of entry level jobs requiring experience, and therefore having no ability to gain experience due to a lack of experience. Now, I see it from a slightly different perspective in that this situation comes from the fact that education simply isn't equipping students with tools that businesses recognise or respect, and thus people are required to have experience or enter into internships, apprenticeships, and similar schemes to even reach an entry level position. Given the amount of money being spent on education and the widespread reports of how well education is doing, I find this a little off.
Ultimately the thing I'd change is a re-evaluation of what education offers, specifically higher education, and academia making a positive step in the direction of industry communication, involvement and discussion rather than keeping academia as a personal treasure not to be corrupted by the world it's meant to feed into. As a side note, I would just say that there are some exceptions to what I'm saying here, as the sciences in particular do have a better link into industry on average, but the vast majority of courses, I feel, do not.
What do you think of that? What would you change?
To kick things off, the one thing I would change is how the education system is handled here, and I believe also in the majority of developed countries. From my perspective, I feel like education has become more of a tool to motivate, reward, and encourage youths rather than to actually equip them with the tools for the wider world. Year on year, we get record breaking grades for high school reported, and at colleges and universities we have an increasingly enormous amount of money being spent on education which is supposed to equip someone for the real world, a career, and effectively to set someone up for life. So often I see people come out of higher education with fantastic grades and an unquestioned positive outlook on their future only to find that they struggle to achieve anything at all in the real world.
At the same time, I perceive an enormous gap between what traditional colleges and universities are offering students and what industry actually demands. When I was a student, I originally perceived the same as most - the never-ending cycle of entry level jobs requiring experience, and therefore having no ability to gain experience due to a lack of experience. Now, I see it from a slightly different perspective in that this situation comes from the fact that education simply isn't equipping students with tools that businesses recognise or respect, and thus people are required to have experience or enter into internships, apprenticeships, and similar schemes to even reach an entry level position. Given the amount of money being spent on education and the widespread reports of how well education is doing, I find this a little off.
Ultimately the thing I'd change is a re-evaluation of what education offers, specifically higher education, and academia making a positive step in the direction of industry communication, involvement and discussion rather than keeping academia as a personal treasure not to be corrupted by the world it's meant to feed into. As a side note, I would just say that there are some exceptions to what I'm saying here, as the sciences in particular do have a better link into industry on average, but the vast majority of courses, I feel, do not.
What do you think of that? What would you change?
