Pay Attention When Scott Adams Gives Education Advice to College Students
The only comic strip that has consistently made me laugh since Calvin and Hobbes left the building is Dilbert. I have thus far managed to avoid being a 9-to-5 prairie dog slaving away in cubicle-ville, but Dilbert applies to several pertinent areas of reality, not just office life. Plus: hilarious. I’m a hard sell; I want to laugh, but most people just aren’t that funny. Scott Adams manages to pull it off nine times out of ten.
Since he’s already got my respect, I had no trouble giving full focus to his article in the Wall Street Journal about why the average college student would benefit more from learning how to run a business than from all that chemistry, calculus, and art history mumbo-jumbo. I loathe business and can’t get enough of the mumbo-jumbo arts, hard sciences, and math, but his article made so much sense I was forced (against my will!) to agree.
From the WSJ article:
I understand why the top students in America study physics, chemistry, calculus and classic literature. The kids in this brainy group are the future professors, scientists, thinkers and engineers who will propel civilization forward. But why do we make B students sit through these same classes? That’s like trying to train your cat to do your taxes—a waste of time and money. Wouldn’t it make more sense to teach B students something useful, like entrepreneurship?
I speak from experience because I majored in entrepreneurship at Hartwick College in Oneonta, N.Y. Technically, my major was economics. But the unsung advantage of attending a small college is that you can mold your experience any way you want.
There was a small business on our campus called The Coffee House. It served beer and snacks, and featured live entertainment. It was managed by students, and it was a money-losing mess, subsidized by the college. I thought I could make a difference, so I applied for an opening as the so-called Minister of Finance. I landed the job, thanks to my impressive interviewing skills, my can-do attitude and the fact that everyone else in the solar system had more interesting plans. More…
Posted by Alexa Harrington
(Dilbert)
Thanks for this!
Excellent! Although I have to admit that I got hooked by the error in the cartoon.One wants to start low rate initial production before testing is finished so that one has product to test. But having said that I agree with you and Adams. I fear that one of the things missing in modern college students and their parents is realism. Back when I was an undergraduate, when television was monochrome and dinosaurs roamed the planet, college was a garden. If you grew as a flower or vegetable, well and good, but if you were a weed you either found something to study that made you a flower or a vegetable. And parents policed this process rigorously. With today’s helicopter parenting and no-student-goes-without-a-prize preparation, I am not sure we are still capable of recognizing this type of reality?
I don’t know. I don’t think there is anything wrong with being well rounded and knowing a little bit about this kind of stuff. Sure, should you have to take years worth of classes on the stuff, no. Should you know the basics and will it help you in life…I think it will.