aravain
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Joined: 8/26/2008
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quote:
ORIGINAL: awmslave
It is not useless if she really can write (not be able to despite the degree is quite common). Also, there is a shortage of teachers in many areas. For example; allegedly Detroit has only 50% literacy.
She can, unfortunately it's in a declining genre that it's becoming harder and harder to get a break in. Her teachers readily admit that, until she's *been* published, already, she doesn't have a chance at *BEING* published for money. That's part of the reason she needs to go to immediate schooling after getting another degree... one where becoming published is actually part and parcel of the program (which is what she's doing).
Even a 4 year degree doesn't let her teach in most states! She needs to go for further schooling for a teaching certificate (which, really IS something I do support).
quote:
ORIGINAL: corysub
I think the example of your friend graduating with a degree in "creative writing" brings focus to the problem facing this country. How many college/post graduate students are studying mechanical engineering, chemical engineering, Biology, Electrical Engineering, Architecture, Civil engineering..and on and on. Where is the next generation of inventors going to come from..the polysci majors...geology, astronomy, French classic writings, ..and on and on with majors where there are NO jobs...and if you get a job it might more often than not be as an intern. Rather, we are getting our talent from overseas, graduates from India in particular, as well as Koreans that I see populating the drug belt of New Jersey.
As far as medicine, if you have a kid going to med school they might consider going to a trade school and learn plumbing. The so called "Stimulus Bill" has planted the seeds to turn medicine into an assembly line of technicians performing standardized tests and treatments for less and less money.
You're only touching on part of the problem, really. The main problem is that *everyone* is going for *A* degree. Not everyone needs a degree, really, very few people *should* need degrees, but it's becoming increasingly more common for *secretarial* positions (yeah, that's right) to require Baccalaureate degrees! There's such a huge divide, there's no 'middle class' of job anymore... that's the real problem. If you don't get a college degree, you don't have a chance at earning a fairly decent wage until after a good amount of experience in a field.
Unfortunately, it's also becoming the truth that, often enough, even having a college degree, isn't really that helpful, any more.
Even in the fields you suggest, there's very little work beyond as research techs (which usually pay little higher than minimum wage with little, if any, chance for betterment and few (if any) benefits), anymore, until you have advanced degrees... and a majority of those jobs available are *extremely* undesirable (little pay, benefits, and sick/vacation time, and tons of work). I remember the first day someone who was younger than my dad was hired as a boss for him because he had a degree... he was pissed (Rightfully so, he had the experience to rival the degree, and they could have promoted him to the position in the first place, since they eventually did when the 'kid' couldn't cut it). Now that same position requires an *advanced* degree (a minimum of a master's in Mech E, I believe, with an emphasis on field experience, or two master's degrees (one Mech E, and another engineering)). *Nothing* else has changed with the job (and my dad's actually in one that's higher than it now! All with barely passing high school )
quote:
Your friend might consider writing a book..."How I made my first million writing a book about why Creative writing courses don't lead to jobs".
Heh, she doesn't do non-fiction on principle.
People are hitting the nail on the head with the idea of a global economy. In a very altruistic sense, it's nice because, hey, everyone's doing well! In a realistic standpoint, well... it's not very fun. You take the absolute doing-worst economy, and the absolute doing-well economy and you average them together, in a very simplistic sense, to create a 'global' economy. It's a form of socialism I'm not particularly fond of. It would have been much nicer if those doors would have stayed closed (for us, that is), but they're open now, and wrenched there. It's going to be interesting to find what niche we can create in order to save ourselves. We need to focus now on being the place people outsource *to*, really, in order to create more (long lasting) jobs.
EDIT: I apologize for all of the commas and 'reallys' included... I kind of overdosed on sleep and water and that has me write exactly as I think (which is wordy and rife with unnatural pauses).
< Message edited by aravain -- 2/15/2009 12:19:34 AM >
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