Hey I took golf and bowling in college and the skills I learned in those classes have helped me immensely as a quality control technician. (I haven't golfed in years and I only bowl a couple times per year btw)
Sent from my ONEPLUS A6013 using
JazzFanz mobile app
I took skiing, billiards and basketball in college, it is good to have some fun. Even in college, social aspects still need to be learned, and having a balance is good for mental health. I took 18 credits every fall, 9 credits every spring (skied three days and went to school two days) and took a couple summer online courses to stay on schedule. If I could go back in time, I would have taken my summers off and stayed in school another year. One of the best periods of my life. Time rich and cash poor and I loved it.
I think eventually this country will go towards more subsidies for college, and eventually free. I think a good start is super discounted community college (maybe free based on meeting qualifications-idea below), and low cost for the additional two years at a university. I don't think it should all be free. People need to value their education. Degrees beyond a bachelors should be less subsidized. As I said above, I just don't want it to turn into free private education. We need reform, and need to bring these high cost schools in line, not provide them even more money with no checks.
I also think we need to retrofit our high schools to make grades 11/12 to include 50% college level courses available as the status quo (students could opt out-college is not for everyone, but make it the norm). And if you take these courses, not only do you get a free year of college (possible to get a year of college credit in HS currently, but not emphasized as much as it should be), you could also get a bonus free year or two years of state college as a automatic scholarship for those students that take advantage of the high school program. Maybe year 2 free, and year three and four 50% off. Essentially reward students for working hard, which will take burden off the taxpayers of subsidizing college for an additional year, etc. Use this as an opportunity to provide qualified teachers to get paid more in high school if they get the extra training and qualifications to teach these upper level courses. I say this as someone who slacked off in high school and felt like I was being babysat and not taught. I was going to a state university, so had no real advantage for working super hard at the time.
I also think any discounts/free college should only apply for the requisite number of years needed to graduate. So if you take 6 years to get through a four year program, years 5-6 cost you and not the taxpayer.
This obviously doesn't take into account the lack of opportunity/poor secondary school programs/etc., in many parts of the country, but that is a whole other discussion.
