Mom Behind the Curtain

every mom wants to be an all-powerful wizard

Do employers hire graduates with liberal arts degrees? – Part 4/9

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Do liberal arts degrees really teach skills that employers are looking for? Are they hiring graduates with liberal arts degrees? What is the evidence?A liberal arts degree will teach you skills that employers are looking for when they hire. When you’re researching college majors, colleges vs. universities, and types of degrees, you will see this statement often. But is it true? I was trying to find some data some data to back up that claim when I came across the PBK website Toolkit. In this series of posts, I’m looking up the references used to prove that a liberal arts and sciences degree will improve your chances of getting a job.

To get back to more of the statements made about the benefits of a liberal arts and sciences degree on the PBK Toolkit page, the next sentence to get my attention with regard to jobs was the following:

“80 percent of employers say that all students, regardless of their chosen field, should acquire broad knowledge in the arts and sciences.iv” PBK toolkit…

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Will a liberal arts degree get you a job? – Part 3/9

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A liberal arts degree will teach you skills that employers are looking for when they hire. You will see this statement often. But is it true? A liberal arts degree will teach you skills that employers are looking for when they hire. When you’re researching college majors, colleges vs. universities, and types of degrees, you will see this statement often. But is it true? I was trying to find some data some data to back up that claim when I came across the PBK website Toolkit. In this series of posts, I’m looking up the references used to prove that a liberal arts and sciences degree will improve your chances of getting a job.

“Students majoring in the liberal arts and sciences see bigger increases in “critical thinking, complex reasoning, and writing skills” than those in other majors.ii” PBK Toolkit, emphasis theirs

This is something that I’ve heard before, without any evidence, so I was impressed they were giving a reference. But, as a science editor I was taught to assess the quality of sources, so I went to the source….

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Why pick a liberal arts degree? – Part 2/9

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The cost of college is unreasonably high. How do you decide if the cost is worth it? One way, is by whether or not it will get you a job.The cost of college is unreasonably high. Yes, I realize that by putting the word “unreasonably” in there I am stating an opinion, not a fact, which isn’t good journalistic practice. (See, I did pay attention in a those years of English I was required to take, and take, and repeat again.) But, this isn’t a post about trying to figure out why the cost of education is so high, or what the return on investment (ROI) is for college. So upfront I’m just going to state the “fact” of college cost being “unreasonably” high as a way to let you know which viewpoint I’m operating from.

Because I think that the cost of college, and therefore the degree your earn, is so expensive that it needs to be justified by something. And today I’m going to choose that the cost should be justified by how that degree helps you get a job….

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What is a liberal arts degree? – Part 1/9

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What is a liberal arts degree? And can you get one from a research university or do you have to attend a liberal arts college?After reading the book Colleges that Change Lives, by Loren Pope, we seriously considered the possibilities of a small liberal arts college for our kids instead of a bigger, research university. Along with this came lots of discussions and considerations about the worth of a liberal arts degree. And what is a liberal arts degree anyway?

During one of these discussions my sister, who’s an astrophysicist professor at a university, made this comment.

“You know, Erin, you have a liberal arts degree.”

“Wait. What? Chemistry is a liberal ARTS degree?”…

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The Worth of Being the Best – Excellent Sheep Part Part 5/5

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Excellent Sheep- Deresiewicz said one thing driving [all the pressure in education] is the "insatiable need to be ‘the best.’”What is the worth of being the best?In Excellent Sheep, the Miseducation of the American Elite & The Way to a Meaningful Life, Deresiewicz said there is one thing driving all the pressure in education, what he refers to as “…the insatiable need to be ‘the best.’” The idea that you don’t need to be the best also came up in World Class Learners: Educating Creative and Entrepreneurial Students by Yong Zhao, that the world no longer needs the United States to “be the best” but to be “part of the world.”

What is the worth of being the best?

This is a tricky concept for me. In many cases, the drive to be the best is what drives excellence. This can be how you achieve excellence….

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AP Failure and the College Admissions Arms Race – Excellent Sheep Part Part 4/5

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Excellent Sheep - When you read about success, "the ability to fail" comes up time and time again. Kids need to learn how to fail. Can AP failure teach kids how to fail?

In an earlier post, I talked about how in Excellent Sheep, the Miseducation of the American Elite & The Way to a Meaningful Life, William Deresiewicz says “The purpose of life [has become] the accumulation of gold stars.” (Excellent Sheep, page 16) How does he relate that to education? How does it relate to high school? Can AP failure teach kids how to fail?…

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The College Admissions Arms Race – Excellent Sheep Part 3/5

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Excellent Sheep - Deresiewicz points out ways the Ivies historically controlled their college admissions to control the kind of student who was admitted.In my last post, I talked in Excellent Sheep, the Miseducation of the American Elite & The Way to a Meaningful Life, William Deresiewicz says “The purpose of life [has become] the accumulation of gold stars.” (Excellent Sheep, page 16) How does he relate that to education? How does it relate to college admissions?…

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The Accumulation of Gold Stars for Success – Excellent Sheep Part 2/5

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Excellent Sheep - William Deresiewicz says Ivy League schools perpetuate the idea that “The purpose of life becomes the accumulation of gold stars.”In my previous post, I talked about how William Deresiewicz starts out Excellent Sheep, the Miseducation of the American Elite & The Way to a Meaningful Life, with the assertion that mental health problems are on the rise among college students. Deresiewicz thinks the problem lies with education, especially elite universities.

Excellent Sheep talks a lot about how the desperate race to collect accolades for acceptance to an elite college affects students.

How it doesn’t stop after high school.

It continues on through college with the accumulation of multiple majors.

“The purpose of life becomes the accumulation of gold stars.” (Excellent Sheep, page 16)

As evidence…

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Excellent Sheep review and discussion – Excellent Sheep Part 1/5

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Excellent Sheep examines why it appears students are effortlessly over-achieving, when actually we have “an epidemic of depression among younger people.”You’ve read about them. Those super-start students who’re valedictorian, took 7 AP classes and tested out of 3 more AP credits, played in the school marching band, got accepted to Harvard, and started up their own non-profit on the side. All while making it look easy. But was it easy? William Deresiewicz starts out Excellent Sheep, the Miseducation of the American Elite & The Way to a Meaningful Life, by pointing out that the easy super-star student is a myth.

He goes into all sorts of statistics to show that while it appears students are effortlessly over-achieving, when you look at the numbers, what we have — according to one college President — is “an epidemic of depression among younger people.”

Of course, it’s just numbers, and just because it’s written in a book, doesn’t mean it’s true. But when what I’m reading matches my own experiences, I start to take notice….

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Why my son won’t attend a liberal arts college, engineering – how to choose a college Part 5/5

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Liberal arts college engineering degree options: 3-2 engineering programs, how they work, and computer science degrees at liberal arts colleges.If you’ve read my previous posts about a liberal arts education at a small liberal arts college, starting with Consider a Liberal Arts College, you probably didn’t expect the title of this post. But sometimes you consider an idea and then find it to not be the best fit. In my last post I covered some reservations I had about a liberal arts degree. But our biggest issue was that we were looking for a college with a computer science degree, a liberal arts college engineering degree. And yes, that turns out to be a contradiction.

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