Exactly. We are over-educating people, and creating a sense of entitlement. Everyone thinks they deserve a white color high paying job now.

I'm not a parent, but whats so bad about setting realistic expectations for your children? The world isn't fair. Not by a long shot. And relatively, anyone posting on an online forum probably isn't too bad off. And I think you can do so without being discouraging.

This is absolutely true.

You make your kid work and learn how to hustle early on.


Kids are way too pampered these days. Pampering should be kept at a low level.


Don't spoil them either. Killing their ambition is the worse thing you can do to them.

There's a degree for everything these days.


Just because you know a lot about some worthless subject doesn't mean jack ****.

How many chilldren haveyou raised? For some reason, I think it's a small number.

The percentage of people with a Bachelor's degree in America is much less than 30%. Numbers vary but a quick internet search (or check wiki or US census data) will show that only 25-28% of Americans have a 4-year college degree. Roughly 50% of the population has "some college". I hardly think that qualifies has "over-educating" - Whatever that is suppose to mean.


Only a god knows what everyone thinks on any given subject. And since there are no gods your statement reeks not just of ignorance but a lack of statistical evidence.

You need to become even more over-educated before making additional posts in the Lounge.

-Zeno, Master of The Universe.

Really? Let's take a major public university and find out:

Arizona State University: http://www.howtogetin.com/colleges/a...mpe/majors.php

"Arizona State University offers 108 majors in 25 areas of study", according to the above ASU link.

Twenty-five areas of study probably does not cover "everything". It probably covers only a small percentage of knowledge about the Universe , especially if you consider the great and the small unknowns on the cusp of knowledge or what will be learned in the future.


Being an English Professor, for example. Or a Mechanical Engineer. Or having a Masters of Science degree in Physics or Genetics. Or a BS degree in say, Computer Programing. Or a PhD in Geology. Worthless?

-Zeno

Zeno,

Tien is Canadian and the post-secondary participation rate here is approaching 70% and there are policies being put in place to further increase it.

The two major negatives of this is that it creates unnecessary qualifications inflation while simultaneously lowering the level of education. Undergrad is now a complete joke and about the equivalent of high school twenty-five years ago.

John Cole,

You don't need to have had a child to see what is wrong with the way people parent.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are already 17mm people employed in America that are over-educated for the job they are performing. Just sayin'.


Sorry. There hasn't been a study or survey done on what the 17mm people that are over-educated "feel" they deserve for a job. I'll get right on that one. Oh wait, you seem to know all, great "Master". Maybe you can actually disprove my statement rather than simply being a douche.

You need to step off your high horse, oh great Master...

__w__

Zeno

Just look up the course catalogs of any major university and ask yourself if half the things they teach are of any use.


For every useful degree we have, we will have an equally useless degree offered.


The problem isn't so much over education, but over education of useless / inapplicable knowledge.

I would say more than that. The largest faculty at most Ontario schools is Social Science and the largest department tends to be psychology. The majority of students have no marketable skills at the end of four years.

My parents raised me exactly how I described.

Many of my friends and family members were raised different.

Doesn't even take half a brain to figure out what works and what doesn't.

This proves my point even more.

25 areas of study and 108 majors. Take a minute to think how many of those 108 majors have any real world use? I ran down the list and went through it. Women's study caught my eye.

Quite laughable.

yet it is still a good decision because you will be competing with a lot of people with at least a university degree. Not graduating with a university degree means you are behind a ton of people.

so spend 4 years getting marketable skills in the field you want or university degree seems to be the two options.

Good. I'm glad that you figured it out.

I've seen much wrong with the way some people parent. Treating children as special and overindulging them, at times, is hardly the worst I've seen. Do some parents do too much for their children? Yes, and I agree that it does hurt children in some cases. But I can't leap to conclusions based on the few cases that I've seen since I tend to fear the hasty generalization.

To just jump in to point out one of my major complaints with America as a whole right now...

There is a relatively recent advent of what I call The Snowflake Syndrome. There seems to be some sort of political advantage to propagating the notion that everyone is "special" and "empowered" or whatever. Of course, my response to this is If everyone is special, than nobody really is, but that is a circular argument that could go on forever.

Why is it not enough to let your children know that they are special to you, but that, as Tyler Durden so eloquently said, they are the same decaying organic matter as everyone else?

It just strikes me as the same sort of entitlement issue that yields a Christian perspective that everyone who does not "accept Jesus" will "burn in Hell."

Isn't life nice enough without all of this nonsense?

Wow i've seen that word "snowflake" like so many times now on 2+2. It's about to drive me nuts. Are you talking about parents who think their kids deserve special treatment or consideration even though they have not met requirements?

John Cole


It isn't even in "a few" cases. It is the majority of cases. Kids growing up today have it a lot easier than they did 50 years ago.


Strict parenting today meant nothing more than average parenting back then.

Well this might be a good thing. I'm not sure how good strict parenting is anyway. Take me for example...I'm pretty messed up! Trust me, you don't want to do that to your kids, Tien.

I'm not sure strict is the word I'd use but more that parents shouldn't be enablers and they shouldn't protect their kids from reality. I'm not really sure it is the parent's fault though as I see it as being more widespread and a major problem in the education system. The issue boils down to when we started to believe that self-esteem was more important than actual results we screwed up everything.

Few educators I know believe self-esteem is more important than results, especially since education has become a results industry.

That is quite enough. My children know I think the world of them, but they also know I'm prejudiced. They also know that I am not the world.

I concur, Katy.

I did say educators. The problem is the system. I can only speak for Ontario but we don't fail students. The Ontario Education Act specifically says that it is the principle's duty to promote students to the next grade regardless of their performance. It is a big production to hold a student back so you are pretty much guaranteed to not fail until grade nine. It is viewed as too stressful and damaging to a student's self-esteem.