The debate of which is more important, the process of knowledge-acquisition, or the degree, off of the Front Page Sections, translated…
The recorded number of retired professors from the colleges and universities are increasing by the year here in Taiwan, and the primary reason was that teaching wasn’t what the professors are interested in doing anymore. The universities started advocating the cross-field studies, breaking the boundaries of the subjects of the various majors, helping the students to learn the multiple skills they are required to have, other than setting up the cross-field common courses, lowering the standards of admissions and graduation for double-major programs, this can also make sure that the students, don’t drop out that easily. But is this, working?
Not only are the students from universities dropping out on the rise, there’s also, the difficulties of making enough students for the graduate programs, even the topnotch universities, had ZERO enrollment rates for their doctoral programs for the various majors right now. The president of N.T.U. Guan stated, that the doctoral courses are heading into “a vicious cycle” right now, that there should be changes, to move the limited resources, onto those who are really interested in doing research. Reasonably, the dissertations by the doctoral students, is about the innovations of ideas, but mostly, the students in Taiwan are, chasing what’s popular, so how can we, possibly, cultivate students, who are at the level of Nobel Prize winners?
In recent years, there’s no longer the equivalency of degree and abilities anymore. If the meaning of success is in making mankind better, we can get to fame on our own, and continue earning money, there’s, no need for, professionalism, like in the book “Poor Dad, Rich Dad”, we need to set up a system, and have the system we set up, make us the money; the key to setting up a good system lies in having a good attitude at work, high work ethics, to earn the trusts of someone, then, set up a system that works.
A lot of the successful entrepreneur stated, that if the younger generations wanted to succeed, the most important values would be the moral standards, the beliefs, and the attitudes, etc., etc., etc. with the professional knowledge, coming in second to all of that. But unfortunately, most of the universities here only focuses on filling up the students’ minds with professional knowledge, to help the various enterprises, the factories, to train the working class and cheap labors, not focusing more on moral, attitudes, and beliefs, or the knowledge of business and finance.
Bill Gates, Jobs, and Zuckerberg, in their middle school years, they’d, started, acquiring the knowledge outside of the scholastics, and used their weekends and spare time to find part-timing opportunities, to acquire the work experiences, to find opportunities of entrepreneurships. In the university levels, they all got involved in the extracurricular activities, made their connections, set up the measures, and from this, we can see, how we can, find opportunities to make money in team building and team work.
The education in college should NOT focus solely on professional knowledge acquisition, because the professional skills can only, gain the temporary incomes, the students should learn how to acquire the right kinds of work ethics, the imaginative abilities for entrepreneurships, and the courage to go after what they want to achieve in their lives. If you only worked hard in your studies, earning those doctoral degrees, or, dual doctoral degrees, but can find a job after graduation, what would be the worth, of that degree you’d, worked, so hard for?
And so, this, is on learning, and knowledge acquisition, that not all learning occurs in the school, classroom settings, that there are, opportunities for us to learn, everywhere we go, and if we are willing to learn, then, we can, gain the knowledge that will take us far in life, not just from those, textbooks or sitting in the lecture halls, listening to our professors, yap about, whatever it is we’re, majoring in.