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Washington Post's Fareed Zakaria writes:
If Americans are united in any conviction these days, it is that we urgently need to shift the country’s education toward the teaching of specific, technical skills. Every month, it seems, we hear about our children’s bad test scores in math and science — and about new initiatives from companies, universities or foundations to expand STEM courses (science, technology, engineering and math) and deemphasize the humanities. From President Obama on down, public officials have cautioned against pursuing degrees like art history, which are seen as expensive luxuries in today’s world. Republicans want to go several steps further and defund these kinds of majors. “Is it a vital interest of the state to have more anthropologists?” asked Florida’s Gov. Rick Scott. “I don’t think so.” America’s last bipartisan cause is this: A liberal education is irrelevant, and technical training is the new path forward. It is the only way, we are told, to ensure that Americans survive in an age defined by technology and shaped by global competition. The stakes could not be higher.
This dismissal of broad-based learning, however, comes from a fundamental misreading of the facts — and puts America on a dangerously narrow path for the future. The United States has led the world in economic dynamism, innovation and entrepreneurship thanks to exactly the kind of teaching we are now told to defenestrate. A broad general education helps foster critical thinking and creativity. Exposure to a variety of fields produces synergy and cross fertilization. Yes, science and technology are crucial components of this education, but so are English and philosophy. When unveiling a new edition of the iPad, Steve Jobs explained that “it’s in Apple’s DNA that technology alone is not enough — that it’s technology married with liberal arts, married with the humanities, that yields us the result that makes our hearts sing.”
It's another installment in a running debate, but with reports that 1/3 of student loans in the United States are delinquent, perhaps it's worth revisiting now.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by PizzaRollPlinkett on Tuesday March 31 2015, @11:31AM
Okay, we know liberal arts degrees don't lead to jobs. STEM degrees don't lead to jobs. Dead-end jobs are being automated as fast as possible. My question over the past several years is what jobs will we have in the near future? What should we prepare young people to do? Where is the growth going to be in the job market? Where will new jobs come from that replace the jobs we're losing to business process workflow automation and offshoring? I've been looking, and the only growth sector I can find is the medical industry. Is there any other sector of the economy creating new jobs? I keep looking. All I can find is the medical industry. We can't all be CNAs and PAs. We can't all sell extended warranties to each other. So what, exactly, are people going to be doing in the future? The administrative and office people whose jobs have been eliminated by workflow automation fell down into the Wal-Mart door greeter/stocker jobs, but we can't all check receipts at Wal-Mart. Entire career fields are disappearing because of automation. And not everyone is going to be a STEM expert. Some people have a ceiling in life that basically is a dead-end job. When those jobs are automated, then what?
I've asked myself these questions since 2008 and have not gotten any good answers. I also don't see much debate about them. The education industry wants subsidies. They'll crank out cohort after cohort of unemployable people as long as they get their money up front. They don't care. They have nothing to add to the debate.
(E-mail me if you want a pizza roll!)
(Score: 3, Insightful) by VLM on Tuesday March 31 2015, @12:07PM
In a healthy economy where everyone is employed its hard to outsource an electrician or plumber or HVAC dude. My neighbor across the street used to be an excellent HVAC dude.
The problem is once all the outsourcable jobs are outsourced, there's nobody left to pay electricians, plumbers, or HVAC dudes, so he's unemployed.
I have a cousin who makes twice what I do as a large diesel maint mechanic (like hospital generators) although the on-call hours and working conditions are horrendous (thus twice my takehome pay, for putting up with maybe 100x the physical BS I have to put up with) Its a strange job because you spend all your time getting certified on fuel injection governor oscillation suppression and troubleshooting sensors or whatever, but then spend almost your time changing filters and repairing degraded wiring. I suppose its similar to going to school for years and taking automata theory and compiler design, then getting out in the world and grinding out boring CRUD apps or even worse sitting on the help desk.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Tuesday March 31 2015, @12:13PM
Micro/Macro
when the .gov (or merged .com) want to bamboozle and baffle with BS, a new form of sophistry you won't see in wikipedia as one of the traditional types is to confuse micro vs macro, especially with anything economic related.
Every idiot out there knows that on a micro level if you get a STEM degree or become a programmer you'll be better off than sticking with factory work or whatever. So when the leadership wants to spew out a line of BS, they'll propose the micro solution as the ideal macro solution. Which is fairly idiotic.
The only result of overproducing CS grads would be imploding CS grad salaries and transferring the pool of unemployed art history major grads to the column on the table of unemployed CS grads. There would be a lot of money made in the educational industry and especially the financial industry, look at those huge new tuition loans... But its not like unemployment would drop or the standard of living would go up or the economy (other than .edu and banks) would improve.
If you produce twice as many education majors as there are open jobs (which is about correct in my area) then half the ed majors are going to be un or under employed. I guess you could argue that ed majors make superior bartenders, but four years of study would make even more superior bartenders out of actual bartenders...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 31 2015, @12:33PM
We should prepare them to be flexible, to take opportunities, and to think for themselves.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by SunTzuWarmaster on Tuesday March 31 2015, @12:52PM
My question over the past several years is what jobs will we have in the near future? What should we prepare young people to do? Where is the growth going to be in the job market? Where will new jobs come from that replace the jobs we're losing to business process workflow automation and offshoring?
Note: I have a PhD in Artificial Intelligence, work in the education field, and am putting my money where my mouth is.
Here is my answer:
1 - First, as a direct answer: we both believe that most of the jobs of the future will be automated. As usual, there is a great future for those who automate. Median pay for computer scientists is nearly $50/hour (6 figures), and it is a growth field (source: http://www.bls.gov/ooh/computer-and-information-technology/computer-and-information-research-scientists.htm), [bls.gov] which indicates that salaries may rise. If you can't beat 'em, join 'em. Failing computerized automation, supporting the value chain should be of general benefit. Examples include sensors for computerized detection, mechanical devices for supporting automated construction, signal processing for processing sensor signals, AI for computerized decision making, etc.
2 - What specific skills will be of benefit in the future? There is always benefit in technical flexibility. Critical thinking, creative problem solving, troubleshooting techniques, etc. are always of benefit to any career path. The person who discovers a better way to do things always has an advantage over the person who doesn't. An engineering degree has value because it teaches the general principles of how to build things and how to fix things, and will be valuable as long as there are things left to build and fix.
3 - Vision/Leadership/Management. The joke is that "Diplomacy" is the most powerful skill for a D&D character, and that it is written next to skills like "jumping really high". There has never been a time in history where the ability to attract and lead people has been worthless, and I wouldn't expect it anytime soon. People like The Oatmeal writer can raise the funds to build a Tesla museum based on personality and persuasiveness. It is a great joke of humanity that humans work best in groups, but lack direction.
4 - Attention gathering. The world of the future has a wealth of information and a dearth of attention. The ability to gather attention and direct it is powerful, and has been increasing in value as the ability to reach audiences has increased. How many YouTube professionals are there now? Podcasters? I expect this number to increase, but its a winner-take-most system.
5 - Business starting. In the world of the future, it is becoming increasingly easy to start a business. Websites are set up mostly by computers, accounting is done via computers, banking is done via computers, checkout/processing is done mostly by computers, and most businesses sell computer capabilities to businesses which need computer capabilities. It is much, much, easier. Things like Dirty Jobs rely mostly on finding a market niche (bloodworm digging), automating as much of the business as possible, focusing on customers, and performing the job (http://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=240780579). It is easier than most people think to start the business, but it needs customers.
6 - Creativity. Let's be honest, this one is a crap-shoot, and I don't know how to learn it. However, especially creative people (artists, musicians, designers, writers, comedians, etc.) have a tendency to do well in most market conditions. Mankind craves entertainment, this isn't going to change anytime soon, most entertainment is based upon novelty, and creativity is critical to creating the novelty.
7 - Ability to work in groups, at a distance, over the internet. See point 3, and all of human communication history.
I've tried to craft the above list such that it affects most/all industries. There are "new" jobs coming about which rely on these skills (medical education podcaster, robotic surgery designer, special interest politician, etc.). Note that you don't have to be "wicked smart" to have most/all of these skills. Running a business of 3 HVAC technicians is work, makes 6+ figures, and relies upon the above skills (starting it, automating it, recruiting people to work for you, managing them, and troubleshooting HVACs). Teach your kids these skills, point them at any field, and they'll do just fine.