Used to be there were scholarships given to deserving students. Who were deserving? If a student was good he got Straight A's. Getting straight A's in several subjects is not easy because the mind sometimes plays better with favorites. I suppose some classes require rote learning and a person with instant memory has a valuable skill. However we won't get into creative intelligence, where some folks have a way with chewing the fat and making it sound like they are smart.
Who gives scholarships?
I know that my group the Chinese Historical Society of Southern California gives students who are going to Universities a chance at a Scholarship. The Panel will have to select out of a pool of (around 10) possible candidates ones that give/write some of their best answers and qualifications.
The state of Texas gives to students of their own state schools a price break ( in-state tuition )at some Universities and Colleges in that state.The 2001 law (giving in-state tuition to illegal aliens) passed with only one dissenting vote in the Texas House and three in the Senate. Nobody
testified against the bill. Just over
12,000 undocumented immigrants received in-state tuition in 2009.
Alumni loyalty and College/University graduate
There are a lot of loyal High School Alumni but usually College and University Alumni prove to be even more generous. Thats because the average income of a College/University graduate is usually higher than just the average high school graduate. In addition the University/college graduate is usually an upstanding citizen.
What if Americans were able to be biased and not let Students graduate?
Americans are unable to stop anyone from attending colleges and universities. You can be gay, liberal, conservative, atheist or whatever, so long as you have the grades to meet the requirements of entrance. They at times can stop students if too many qualified students apply at one time. However mid year they often let students in (with less restrictions) due to the dropping out of students. (That's how I got into my University)
I suppose some students can get expelled from the University due to a variety of reasons but they better have a good excuse to give to the Alumni association. (Right now some students at UCI are fighting to not being expelled for protesting at a Israeli Minister lecture).
What Society needs to do to help Students
Society should contribute more to schools. They should interject more materials for teachers to teach, they should give money and equipment to schools, and they should hire more school graduates.
Comments (14)
I guess, me and my siblings were lucky. Some of us granted scholarships from Malaysian Government and some from State (Sarawak) government without being applied for it. Excellent results helped of course, so that family 'cable' within in government.
Education rocks! It does need more state funding. That could help keep the cost down to the students.
The government needs to get out of the education business. Once government gets involved the price of tuition skyrockets and then learning becomes political.
Political parties have a vested interest in seeing their particular version of reality taught in the universities. That's why the universities now teach atheistic evolution, the global warming hoax, the death by over population hoax, the DDT hoax, the government can cure poverty hoax and on and on.
The government is not society. And the more government stays out of society, the richer, more vibrant, more just more free, society will be.
Agree
They should help educators to understand that the time per labor unit cost of supporting human life is diminishing and everything affected by economics and work need to adjust accordingly.
Khanacademy.org is a great template and starting point for the direction education needs to go to reduce the average age of professional level education to ~16 years old while mostly eliminating school related stresses and the cost of education worldwide to hover around nothing. Lessons are taught by video. It only needs it's exercise and scoring system to be finished by education professionals (mathematics seems to be already complete). It will do wonders for all primary education and college courses which don't have to depend on hands on or interpersonal training.
I'm always for education,too.
How well do you think a program would work if the Student began with full tuition and was given a rebate according to his grade? It would work very similar to some employment supported subjects but the student could still specialize in his preferred endevour. The State would pick up the difference. Just a thought from an old woman.
@LoBornlytesThoughtPalace - Back in the days people just learn trades. The social interaction part is a bit tricky. Your own social bias is a minefield....
Democracy seems to work on a social level. Greed and jealousy are enemies of a workable capitalistic system.
@RestlessButterfly - I am biased towards the Singaporean system. I see that some of that system is working for you. See we share things in common.
@C_L_O_G - I felt I could have written this blog better. There are so many anti-education folks, at times I sympathize with them. I would be a hypocrite to be against scholarships and grants since my daughters were recipriants of them. It is better to have a trainable and educated work pool than a docile and inflexible work pool.
@Mal_P - I will have to private message you. There are some contradictions that I see that I want to discuss privately.....
@mommachatter - For sure students should not take education for granted. An incentive to push them to work harder may or may not work, just like some parents are able to push students and some parents have to give up on pushing....
@PPhilip - "Back in the day" could mean any time. And the trades have never made up a majority of the American economy. Farming employed the most workers until 1954. After that white collar workers became the majority.
And it is precisely because social interactions are so tricky that the government must stay out of them and only be occupied with the functions set forth in the US Constitution.
Your comment on greed and jealously shows that liberals are hell bent on enforcing their version of morality through government control of the economy.
If I proposed that Christian morality were to be enforced upon everyone by the government you would throw a fit. Yet liberals have absolutely no problem with such an idea as long as the version of morality being enforced is their own.