<story><title>How many jobs really require college?</title><url>https://devinhelton.com/how-many-jobs-require-college</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>pen2l</author><text>I think the author of this post is making the same mistake that a lot of other people (particularly smart folks) make whenever they are thinking about the ills of modern education system and what can be done to improve it. Like Peter Thiel and others, I don&amp;#x27;t think they understand how and why students are failing in classrooms today.&lt;p&gt;Take for example the author&amp;#x27;s suggestions on how school systems can be improved:&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;Create a set of free, online high school and college degree programs that any American could enroll in, and pursue at their own pace.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;Can you really expect high school students to perform well in online classes? The most elite companies in the valley have correctly found out that remote doesn&amp;#x27;t work (in most cases)... and yet we&amp;#x27;re going to do remote with our students? I took online classes when I went back to complete college at an older age... it was the worst mistake of my life. As a human, I needed the social imposition of a disappointed teacher telling me that I performed poorly on my test, I needed the camaraderie of students with whom I could study somewhere. Online classes, &lt;i&gt;especially&lt;/i&gt; at high school stage are very bad (perhaps with the exception of &amp;quot;gifted&amp;quot; students who probably would benefit from being in a fast-tracked line).&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;At age 13, give everyone a $100k education voucher.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;You&amp;#x27;re giving too much credit to students, they don&amp;#x27;t know what is best for them. This $100k will be exploited in some way by profit-seeking companies before you have a second to glance back at the money.&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;Legalize and normalize apprenticeship contracts.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;I agree with this.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>matwood</author><text>What you&amp;#x27;re really pointing out is that people are different. Some need more structure than others. For whatever reason, I&amp;#x27;m a pretty motivated person. Remote work is great for me because any time I can save is more time I have to do the list of things I want to get done that day.&lt;p&gt;My wife OTOH, requires structure. She&amp;#x27;s smart and works hard, but if she was left to work at home she would procrastinate until the 11th hour. She needed a brick and mortar college, and in that structure managed to get her 4 year degree is 2.5 years.&lt;p&gt;One thing not discussed is that quality online degree programs can significantly lower the cost bar for students. I was lucky enough to have a decent school near my parents, so I lived at home for my entire undergrad degree. We simply did not have the money to do anything different, and I refused to take out loans unless absolutely necessary (I worked instead). It would have been amazing if there had been self paced online degrees offered by big name colleges at the time I was in undergrad.</text></comment>
<story><title>How many jobs really require college?</title><url>https://devinhelton.com/how-many-jobs-require-college</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>pen2l</author><text>I think the author of this post is making the same mistake that a lot of other people (particularly smart folks) make whenever they are thinking about the ills of modern education system and what can be done to improve it. Like Peter Thiel and others, I don&amp;#x27;t think they understand how and why students are failing in classrooms today.&lt;p&gt;Take for example the author&amp;#x27;s suggestions on how school systems can be improved:&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;Create a set of free, online high school and college degree programs that any American could enroll in, and pursue at their own pace.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;Can you really expect high school students to perform well in online classes? The most elite companies in the valley have correctly found out that remote doesn&amp;#x27;t work (in most cases)... and yet we&amp;#x27;re going to do remote with our students? I took online classes when I went back to complete college at an older age... it was the worst mistake of my life. As a human, I needed the social imposition of a disappointed teacher telling me that I performed poorly on my test, I needed the camaraderie of students with whom I could study somewhere. Online classes, &lt;i&gt;especially&lt;/i&gt; at high school stage are very bad (perhaps with the exception of &amp;quot;gifted&amp;quot; students who probably would benefit from being in a fast-tracked line).&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;At age 13, give everyone a $100k education voucher.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;You&amp;#x27;re giving too much credit to students, they don&amp;#x27;t know what is best for them. This $100k will be exploited in some way by profit-seeking companies before you have a second to glance back at the money.&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;Legalize and normalize apprenticeship contracts.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;I agree with this.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>JDiculous</author><text>&amp;gt; The most elite companies in the valley have correctly found out that remote doesn&amp;#x27;t work&lt;p&gt;There are enough companies out there with remote employees and even remotely distributed teams to disprove the assertion that &amp;quot;remote doesn&amp;#x27;t work&amp;quot;.</text></comment>