<p>You might be interested in the lyrics to the song, “I Wish I Could Go Back to Colllege” from the musical, Avenue Q:</p>
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<p>and then there are those scholars who are concerned that the ideals of higher education are no longer being met in our modern, mass produced colleges…</p>
<p>“it allows us to be kids for bit longer”</p>
<p>perhaps with good reason…</p>
<p>I used to think the main function of college was to train students for jobs. But now I think its main function is to expose students to a variety of problem solving skills and a variety of thoughts while allowing them to grow up. Also educators are in the business of evaluating thinking skills and this saves employers from having to figure this out from brief interviews with job seekers.</p>
<p>College is the place where kids play at being independent before theyre really independent.</p>
<p>It’s what the Im a High School Grad benchmark was some 50 years ago. In other words, just a current delineator.</p>
<p>Our society certainly does not have a consensus on what college education is, or should be. Just looking at the different styles, from open curriculum to core, liberal arts to technical, I don’t know if it even matters if we can describe it better than a time to grow up. </p>
<p>Now I think that the purpose of education is to address weaknesses. If you do not think you can write well, or have no idea about what’s going on in the news, or just cannot seem to program on your own, then maybe undergrad is the place for that. I think being well-rounded is the only way to go personally–at least for undergrad–but on the other hand it is much more efficient to have specialists as soon as possible. I think it is best to have different types of schools trying different things, and they can satisfy society’s needs in different ways. Consistency is not always necessary.</p>