TUMBLR
A scrapbook of stuff I'm reading / looking at / listening to / thinking about...
Posts tagged "you dont have to go to college"
Kio Stark, Don’t Go Back To School
I was really thrilled to read Kio’s book before it came out — if you follow my “you dont have to go to college” tag you know this is a subject near and dear to me. Here’s my blurb from the inside cover:
Not going to graduate school felt like a failure at the time, but wound up being the best choice I ever made. It set me out on a path of self-learning and discovery that led me to work I love, work that would’ve never flown in an academic setting. How I wish I’d had Kio’s book as a guide to help me along the way!
Over and over in the interviews with independent learners, what struck me was the importance of publicly sharing and teaching what you’re learning:
You need to create a feedback loop that confirms your work is worth it and keeps you moving forward. In school this is provided by advancing through the steps of the linear path within an individual class or a set curriculum, as well as from feedback in the form of grades and praise. Outside of school, people I talked to got their sense of competence from many sources. Many reported to me that they often turn around and teach what they’ve learned to others as soon as they’ve learned it. This gives them a sense of mastery and deepens their understanding. When their learning is structured around a specific project, successful completion and functioning of the project proves their progress. Projects can include making a computer program, constructing a book, making a film, writing about an unfamiliar topic, starting a business, or learning a skill. Projects give you a goal for learning skills and abstract information alike, and contribute to gaining a sense of mastery and competence as you complete them.
For me, blogging was basically my graduate school.
You can get the eBook from Kio’s site.
Jessica Hagy on student debt. (Her new book, How To Be Interesting, is out.)
Filed under: YDHTGTC
- The Unworkshop. “Editors have real jobs and give writers gigs. What does knowing another writer ever get you?”
- Accounting. “This class will be essential because student loan payments never go away, like Nuclear Herpes.”
- Grant Writing. “Even more important than your own writing, which is what it is, is your ability to write in such a way that people will give you money.”
- Charm Classes. “ A little charm goes a long way. “Please” and “thank you.” Not being a complete dick all the time. Flirting a little. Seeming to listen to people. Attempting to be a genuine person in whatever shifty, fake ways you can.”
- Sex Ed. “ No one wants to be fucked for hours. Just wrap yourself around me and give me five good minutes and then a nap.”
- Concentration Class. “This class will teach you that nothing on the internet is really all that important.”
The way to get startup ideas is not to try to think of startup ideas. It’s to look for problems, preferably problems you have yourself.
A really great essay that could just as easily be about coming up with ideas for books, music, design, etc. (“Write the book you want to read.”)
Loved this point about not taking too much of a course load in college:
Or don’t take any extra classes, and just build things. It’s no coincidence that Microsoft and Facebook both got started in January. At Harvard that is (or was) Reading Period, when students have no classes to attend because they’re supposed to be studying for finals.
“Live in the future, then build what’s missing.”
(via @DanielPink)
Kevin Carey, the director of the Education Policy Program at the New America Foundation, was on Fresh Air today talking about the cost of American higher education — it’s an okay interview, but this article is an even better summary:
Democrat or Republican, liberal or conservative, if you want a quality college education, there’s a good chance you’re going to spend most of your 20’s in a state of indentured servitude to a lender or an employer you hate but can’t quit, because the loan bills — undischargeable in bankruptcy, thanks to industry lobbying — will follow you to the end of time. Literally: The Washington Post has reported that $36 billion in loan debt is held by people over 60 years old.
Carey admits that “college is still a good economic deal, on average, in the long term,” but “the problem is that a) many people are, by definition, below average, and b) student loans are due in the short term.”
His answer? Adopt an fixed percentage income-based repayment system and rebuild the idea of higher education as a public good — bring down costs by getting colleges to “rein in spending, de-escalate status competition and use technology to improve student learning while simultaneously lowering prices.”
More on the state of higher education in my (facetiously titled) Tumblr tag: you don’t have to go to college
I was gonna get my MFA ON DVD from Hennessy Youngman, but it’s temporarily SOLD OUT. DAMMIT!
(Source: youtube.com)
