Learning for learning's sake

[Braunwyn]

Well, even personal growth is an application, one that affects every aspect of life.

I suppose my real problem is when people waste their life learning to "look smart."

lol I feel like we're skipping through a winding path here. Wanting to "look smart" brings us back full circle to obtaining an education for a pay check. Maybe it's not a matter of looking smart like wanting to be a big fish in a small pond but many accomplished individuals are sucessful in part to plain ol pride.

 

[MaxP]

lol I feel like we're skipping through a winding path here. Wanting to "look smart" brings us back full circle to obtaining an education for a pay check. Maybe it's not a matter of looking smart like wanting to be a big fish in a small pond but many accomplished individuals are sucessful in part to plain ol pride.

Oh, I didn't mean look smart for a better resume, but to look smart for, plain ol' pride.

I'll concede; it just annoys me because it does.

 

[Braunwyn]

Oh, I didn't mean look smart for a better resume, but to look smart for, plain ol' pride.

I'll concede; it just annoys me because it does.

Hey, we all have things that annoy us. My pride annoys me quite a bit. Do I really need a phD? Is it ALL about saving humanity? lol no.

 

[billwald]

Learning for learning's sake is a wonderful activity for someone with time on their hands. A retired person enrolling for credit in a public, subsidized college to get a degree that they will never need or use is conceited greed.

 

[a.d.ivNonasNovembres]

Learning for learning's sake is a wonderful activity for someone with time on their hands. A retired person enrolling for credit in a public, subsidized college to get a degree that they will never need or use is conceited greed.

Why? Why shouldn't society value the pursuit of knowledge for its own sake enough to subsidise it?

 

[Braunwyn]

Learning for learning's sake is a wonderful activity for someone with time on their hands. A retired person enrolling for credit in a public, subsidized college to get a degree that they will never need or use is conceited greed.

And how often does that happen? I knew one senior as an undergrad. She looked like she was 80 or something! Good on her I thought.

 

[a.d.ivNonasNovembres]

And how often does that happen?

Looking at my uni I'd say there is one to three retired persons per department (it varies a bit between departments).
I think its great. They bring their life experience to the seminar discussions, they get to learn about things which they are passionate about, unlike a lot of the kids who are just there because university is what everyone does after school.

 

[Autumnleaf]

How do you feel about people who get degrees just for the sake of getting one? Since I've been in school most people around me get degrees in hopes of getting a decent career where they makes lots of money. But I also met people who were getting degrees because of self improvement, or something like that.

So what do you think of people who seek education because they like learning?

Is it a waste of time? Why or why not?

For most people education is about buying your way into a job.

So, yeah. Its about the money most of the time.

If you don't need the money then you can learn at school or at the library.

 

[Braunwyn]

Looking at my uni I'd say there is one to three retired persons per department (it varies a bit between departments).
I think its great. They bring their life experience to the seminar discussions, they get to learn about things which they are passionate about, unlike a lot of the kids who are just there because university is what everyone does after school.

Yea, they are rare. I would also suspect that retired folk (generally) wouldn't qualify for need based loans, given that they're retired.

 

[PassionFruit]

Looking at my uni I'd say there is one to three retired persons per department (it varies a bit between departments).
I think its great. They bring their life experience to the seminar discussions, they get to learn about things which they are passionate about, unlike a lot of the kids who are just there because university is what everyone does after school.

Sounds almost like my uni. Though at times, those older students get on my nerves with their life stories and spending so much time on one topic.

I swear, some of these students would take up half of class just focused on one issue especially when there are issues that need to be discussed.

I remember there was this guy in a women in literature course I was taking, and we were discussing this Emily Dickinson poem, and what happened was we spent just about forty minutes discussing this poem even though we've already came to the conclusion about what the poem meant. He had to keep trying to analyze it.

Acccckkk! Hate that so much.

 

[cantata]

How do you feel about people who get degrees just for the sake of getting one? Since I've been in school most people around me get degrees in hopes of getting a decent career where they makes lots of money. But I also met people who were getting degrees because of self improvement, or something like that.

So what do you think of people who seek education because they like learning?

Is it a waste of time? Why or why not?

I'm mainly doing my degree - in philosophy and theology - for the love of learning.

I recognise that I am gaining some "transferable skills", and that's great, but I'm never going to need to know what Matthew's attitude to the Jews was or the finer points of Berkeley's immaterialism in "the real world". I don't care, though. Despite my constant complaining (), I love studying and I love learning, and while there are lots of more practical courses I could have taken, this one makes me happy.

 

[moonkitty]

Sounds almost like my uni. Though at times, those older students get on my nerves with their life stories and spending so much time on one topic.

I swear, some of these students would take up half of class just focused on one issue especially when there are issues that need to be discussed.

I remember there was this guy in a women in literature course I was taking, and we were discussing this Emily Dickinson poem, and what happened was we spent just about forty minutes discussing this poem even though we've already came to the conclusion about what the poem meant. He had to keep trying to analyze it.

Acccckkk! Hate that so much.

In my experience it has been the younger students who were like that. Especially if they wanted to waste class time, they'll go on and on about something that barely connected to the subject at hand. That is when a good professor steps in and gets the class back on track.