Interesting thoughts all around, including Mr. Cuban's. In lieu of covering the same items in an insignificantly different way, I'll touch on one specific component of the discussion: immediate gratification and our society's unattraction to long term rewards. The changes in our college delivery model are no different than the fast food mentality of most of the rest of our society. Cuban referenced it in regards to newspapers, everyone now expects news to be delivered instantly; and distilled preferably to 140 characters or less. The problem is that your education is the underpinning of the next 40-50 years of your professional life, and even if you can, you might reconsider getting that as fast, as convenient, or as inexpensively as possible. When was the last time you gave up the immediate for the potential for something long term?
To connect back to one of Ed's thoughts, college is also about maturity. It is about developing social skills, independence, interdependence, learning that you aren't as special as your Mom and Dad said you were growing up. How do you get this without the context of brick and mortar? How do you develop social skills and not just technical skills? In my career my knowledge got me a chance at the table, but my ability to communicate, solve problems, and work with/lead others is what got me promoted. Can you develop these skills by reviewing powerpoints and reading books? I don't think so. You develop far greater skills by having the experience I did: confronting a professor who erroneously accuses you of cheating, talking a buddy into buying you one more beer when you ran out of money, playing hours of basketball with complete strangers and developing relationships based purely on sport, arguing with roomates over the cleanliness of the sink. These opportunities not only teach you how to be successful professionally, but how to coexist personally.
No comments:
Post a Comment