While Dale Stephens is trying to encourage people to look for alternatives to the college experience, I am left wondering if the “young entrepreneur” is merely that, looking for his five minutes while exploiting a situation (with flaws I will admit) to make a personal gain. I read the article on Chronile.com about Stephens’s UnCollege (see URL below for the whole piece) and found myself thinking that the ideas he proposes are not so much about learning what one needs for a particular job, but more about specification of skills that would make a person less marketable due to that very specificity. He also states that he was homeschooled (a viable option in its own rite) and that he came up with his own ideas for projects that propelled him through learning that meant more to him than a lecture hall. I have to question that in fifth grade he was really coming up with internships and projects on his own, but that is another one of his claims;
“Mr. Stephens has been home-schooled since fifth grade, and he says that has taught him how to find ways to learn outside of classrooms—by finding internships, seeking out mentors, and designing projects on his own. And he says he is frustrated with his experience so far at college, mainly because of what he calls ‘a gap between theoretical knowledge and practical application of that knowledge.’ In other words, he spent his time in class thinking to himself, Why do I need to know this?”
We have all had those classes where we think “When am I ever going to use this?” but in the field of education I have learned that something that I considered irrelevant at that time has been quite useful later on. Theoretical knowledge is the foundation that I practice practical application upon. For example, without the history of theories on curriculum I would not be able to fully understand how education has evolved to become what it is today, and therefore would not be as effective in my approaches to curriculum (and ultimately would not be as effective in my classroom).
Then there is his last quote, “Individuals that are motivated to do it themselves definitely don’t need UnCollege.” Isn’t this statement running against everything that he just spoke to? UnCollege is for students who are unhappy with their college experience and feel they could get something more out of it if they did it themselves. Personally I think you would have to be really motivated to look for other options to begin with, so why would anyone pay to do something that they can get on their own? I don’t know, but the more I look at the idea the more the teacher in me rises up against it.
Say I wanted to become an electrical technician and though that Uncollege was for me; I could sign up for the UnCollege experience. I would have the advantages of setting my own pace and finding information about that very defined set of skills. I would test myself and my progress, completing projects that would help guide me to the completion of my goals. Unfortunately I am impatient and I decide that I am done after a year. I “graduate” myself and start looking for a job. Here is where I start running into problems. I have no hard evidence that I have the qualifications to be an electrical technician, and my background in education will be of little use in that field. Next, I bypassed a lot of the material I would have learned in a regular classroom and lost the benefit of a teacher who is available regularly (whereas a mentor may be somewhat less reliable).
Somehow I manage to get an interview, and I am unable to communicate effectively with the interviewer because I am too unfamiliar with the language and the interactions of people in this field (something I may have gotten more of if I had been surrounded by peers, and not just chatting on discussion boards). If I got a job I would still be struggling to make sense of things, not entirely sure of how electronics work (or don’t work, or why they stop working) and after a short time this becomes clear to my boss, who fires me. So now what? I am back to the job hunt, which we all know is not great, especially now. After many applications and a few interviews I am no closer to holding down a position and word has spread that I am not a qualified candidate.
The options from here look dim. I can go back to the UnCollege site and try again, still without any guarantee that I will come out better than I did before. While the same can be said of a more traditional college setting, it is also true that having a degree in anything looks better on my resume. I may not agree with that, and in fact I think that experience should count more than it does, but it is still what employers are looking for. I don’t want to admit that my diploma means no more than a foot in the door (and costs way too much to be just a doorstop), but I can recognize that while it may appear that way I will be able to prove myself a good teacher partially because of the training I have gotten through attending college (the other part is through experience, personality, and attitudes that I bring to my work).
Overall I find it difficult to see an idea like UnCollege becoming a real contender to real colleges. I know that people are upset with their education, and that may feed the growing momentum to make changes. I just hope that people realize that not are changes are in a positive direction, and in some cases can be more detrimental than helpful. If we want to see education change at the college level I think we should work with what we already have.
http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/disgruntled-college-student-starts-uncollege-to-challenge-system/29631
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