Are people becoming more, or less, educated than 100 years ago?

[plarq]

Average IQ of society +
Average IQ of students -

 

[Tahuti]

I disagree. Degrees in law, medicine, dentistry, engineering, the hard sciences, economics and so on show that this person has mastered the basics of his craft and is certified to work in said field as well as gaining knowledge.

Mies van der Rooh didn't had a degree in architecture, nor did Bill Gates had one in CS. Though medicine and law would probably be exceptions, I still think college is better to be used as a means for a research career rather than a prerequisite for white collar career.

 

[innonimatu]

This literature is an extremely narrow facet of education. Overall, people are vastly more educated than they were 100 years ago

Well... so is modern education! A large portion of what we learn today will be as outdated in the next century as what people learned back in the 1900s. And that includes our science and technology, or at least our methods or routines of doing science.

The only seemingly in temporal things are philosophy and that literature about certain intemporal human issues. So I can understand the idea of comparing that between the ages.
But even comparing that, I'd say that now people are more educated than 100 years ago. Yes, we may have an "attention span problem" compared to people living 100 years ago, or even 20 years ago. But it that really a probem? There is indeed only so much one individual can do over a lifetime. And so much to choose from!

 

[Terxpahseyton]

Yeah. A math degree at waterloo for example? Only people who are actually good at math will get those.

An sociology degree at a random university? Anyone could do it.

That's what I mean. I am doing a rather special university course with political science and sociology, but also law and economics. Without really knowing anything, I started one day before the sociology exam to study and passed with 1,7 (a B+) [though I am also kind of bright ], the same approach would be ludicrous in "mathematics for economists", wouldn't even get me a D.
Though I can not help but add, that it would be easy to make sociology really hard, too. But that would put such pressure on the Professor to also convey it in necessary depth that my guess is it would be too inconvenient. It's easy to teach complicated math on the other hand (if you know math).

 

[aronnax]

Mies van der Rooh didn't had a degree in architecture, nor did Bill Gates had one in CS. Though medicine and law would probably be exceptions, I still think college is better to be used as a means for a research career rather than a prerequisite for white collar career.

The many brilliant exceptions to an otherwise solid rule.

 

[Traitorfish]

Well, when three of the greatest minds in early Modern architecture- van der Rohe, Le Corbusier and Wright- were not qualified architects, you have to wonder which is the rule and which is the exception.

 

[aelf]

I think that was probably more viable in their time than now. These days if you cannot show the desired qualifications, it's almost impossible to get people to give you a chance.

 

[Flying Pig]

Well, when three of the greatest minds in early Modern architecture- van der Rohe, Le Corbusier and Wright- were not qualified architects, you have to wonder which is the rule and which is the exception.

I wonder how many catastrophically incompetant designers of buildings held an architecture degree?