Comments on: On the American College Student http://neoacademic.com/2009/10/06/on-the-american-college-student/ technology, education and training research from an industrial/organizational (I/O) psychologist in the ivory tower Thu, 09 Feb 2012 17:14:12 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Richard N. Landers http://neoacademic.com/2009/10/06/on-the-american-college-student/comment-page-1/#comment-411 Richard N. Landers Thu, 08 Oct 2009 15:18:43 +0000 http://neoacademic.com/?p=420#comment-411 I think what's even worse than that is that society keeps misleading them into believing that income is a valuable life goal in and of itself. For most people, income alone is not enough, and when they enter the workforce after taking such an approach and find themselves miserable every day despite making good money, that should not be such a surprise. In my I/O class, when I teach about training, I characterize education as providing critical thinking, adaptation, and other general skills, while training fills in the gaps between those general skills and the specific skills required of a person on a job. That seems surprising to some. My worry is that many (or perhaps most) college students don't know why they are in college in the first place. I think what’s even worse than that is that society keeps misleading them into believing that income is a valuable life goal in and of itself. For most people, income alone is not enough, and when they enter the workforce after taking such an approach and find themselves miserable every day despite making good money, that should not be such a surprise.

In my I/O class, when I teach about training, I characterize education as providing critical thinking, adaptation, and other general skills, while training fills in the gaps between those general skills and the specific skills required of a person on a job. That seems surprising to some. My worry is that many (or perhaps most) college students don’t know why they are in college in the first place.

]]> By: George A Guajardo http://neoacademic.com/2009/10/06/on-the-american-college-student/comment-page-1/#comment-409 George A Guajardo Wed, 07 Oct 2009 22:36:21 +0000 http://neoacademic.com/?p=420#comment-409 This is a tough one for me. I am a firm believer in the value of an education. I draw a very bold line between education and job training. These are not the same thing. The thing is, this line is very clear for me, but not so clear for most of the country. When we hear about our politicians and community leaders, we hear about the benefits of education in terms of economic returns. It should be no surprise then, that a whole generation of students have grown up expecting college to prepare them to make more money... the learning is just something that separates them from the actual benefit. As a result, I think we have poorly trained employees and a poorly educated populace. If I wanted to make money, apparently I should have become an electrician, plumber or carpenter in a major mid-western city. As it stands, I am very well educated, a practiced thinker and problem-solver, but I seldom have two dimes to rub together. Is this the way it should be? Who knows? The more important problem is that we keep misleading our youngsters, telling them that education=income. How do we fix this without risking loosing funding for all but a few universities? This is a tough one for me. I am a firm believer in the value of an education. I draw a very bold line between education and job training. These are not the same thing. The thing is, this line is very clear for me, but not so clear for most of the country. When we hear about our politicians and community leaders, we hear about the benefits of education in terms of economic returns. It should be no surprise then, that a whole generation of students have grown up expecting college to prepare them to make more money… the learning is just something that separates them from the actual benefit.

As a result, I think we have poorly trained employees and a poorly educated populace.

If I wanted to make money, apparently I should have become an electrician, plumber or carpenter in a major mid-western city. As it stands, I am very well educated, a practiced thinker and problem-solver, but I seldom have two dimes to rub together. Is this the way it should be? Who knows?

The more important problem is that we keep misleading our youngsters, telling them that education=income. How do we fix this without risking loosing funding for all but a few universities?

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