The True Purpose of the University

Depends on the "snowflake mills" you are considering attending. I would argue the millennial mentality is not confined strictly to colleges and universities at any level. I went to a great school and everyone from the President on down supported the military. Of course, this was back in the early 2000s. I see some of the articles coming out these days about what some educational institutions tolerate from their students and some of the things that actually stem from the professors and it is scary!

Yes. The trades have been down-played by the universities, but they remain in strong demand in the real world. What I would give for the skills of a real carpenter.

I was thinking that the other day Col Joseph Lenertz when I was thinking about building a shed and patio behind my house lol

Good plan. Trades are USEFUL. As someone with a Bachelors Degree in Political Science, I can tell you that the only benefit I have gotten from having that degree was enlisting at E-4 and 100 promotion points. Whereas my Microsoft certifications have enabled me to work on some very cool projects and learn a lot of I.T. stuff that you cannot get from books or even certification classes.

CPT Jack Durish - Tried (by fire) and tested, ha ha! I don't know. I heard an argument recently that the Internet and Google are making higher education obsolete. I am paraphrasing, but presents an intriguing argument.

PO1 John Crafton - I hear you. I enjoy classroom discussion, but with heavily technical fields like you are talking about, I don't see a simple facilitation environment succeeding. Great point!

This is true to a point. However, in today's university, most of the professors are teaching their students how to fall on their faces both academically and socially. When a tenured professor whose last experience in the "Real world" was over 10 years prior, there is an information and experience gap, which only does a dis-service to students.

LTC (Join to see) - I once read a short book on Leadership written by a major general. He said that a good leader is a teacher and a good teacher is a leader. It's something I've come to believe. As a leader you have a responsibility to insure that your subordinates have all they need to accomplish the mission with which they are tasked, including training. (If you want something done your way, teach them how to do it your way) I had many good teachers/leaders in my life but, sadly, never in a classroom. Thus I became an autodidact. Still, I needed help and I sought our mentors. (Somewhere in someone's holy scriptures there is a piece of advice: Go find yourself a Rabbi/Teacher. Good advice that) There I was fortunate. I had some great ones. My problem was and is that I have questions. And every time I learn something new, I have even more questions. "Teachers" in the schools I attended hated questions. I was classified as a disruptive influence in class simply because my teachers couldn't answer them and were offended when I sought out my own answers and tried to share them. As a teacher (isn't it strange that I became one myself? No, never in a public school or university. I never would have been tolerated there) Where was I? Oh, as a teacher I led my students to embrace questions and helped them discover strategies for finding answers. I also taught them to embrace mistakes as opportunities to learn. Can you imagine any college or university that would tolerate that attitude today?

Great to hear!