[jasode]

>So why do so many people who have chosen to take that extra step, just stop educating themselves when they graduate?

Because most people don't go to college to "get an education." They just go there as a hoop-jumping prerequisite to hopefully get "a job" and with that, a middle-class lifestyle. It's not that they want to know Shakespeare (running towards an academic milestone), but rather, they simply want to avoid "flipping burgers" (running away from a miserable economic existence).

The author appears to be from Spain. I don't know how the culture there perceives higher education but in the USA, the vast majority of students go to college to "get a piece of paper" as a signaling mechanism.[1] As another comparison, Germany doesn't seem to have as much of a social stigma for young adults pursuing the apprenticeship track instead college. In America, the "trades" of plumbers/electricians/welders are lower social rank than office workers with a degree.

For most (especially those not pursuing STEM), any education received -- is a side effect and not the primary purpose of school. This is not a negative judgement about those students. They do want to learn ... they'd just rather not learn about Shakespeare at college just so they can copy paste numbers from one Excel spreadsheet to another in their post-graduation professional job. Those people do continue learning but the topics they pursue on their own don't match the typical university curriculum. (e.g. they learn more about cooking, travel destinations, or other hobbies that interest their minds.)

The university was originally for well-off children of aristocracy or those training for religious studies. Perhaps those students pursued "education" purely for education's sake... along with the "grand tour" of Europe, etc. Those young adults didn't have to get a job so the "purpose" of university schooling wasn't intermingled with impure motives of economics. (E.g. I get my rich dad's inheritance regardless of how well I learn Greek/Latin). However, over the last few decades, higher education became a sorting mechanism for employers (e.g. this job application with no college degree gets rejected) so it's perfectly logical that students these days just go to college to check off that box for potential employment.

[1]http://econlog.econlib.org/archives/2015/04/educational_sig_...

[50CNT]

American Universities do seem like they are playing dress up in the clothes of the older aristocratic systems whilst having dropped the key features that made these systems desirable.

As an example, take analytical reading, writing, and discourse. They used to be a key component (the trivium of Grammar, Logic, and Rhetoric) of higher education, and they are still valuable skills. Being able to dissect, evaluate and challenge an argument is the basis for making informed choices. The clashing of dogma that stretches from politics to tech discussions might just be down to us not knowing how to argue. So we lob things past each others heads like that makes sense.

As of now, it's been relegated to being touched gingerly at the end of highschool, and taught hush-hush on a need-to-know basis during graduate studies.

It's a pity because we could fit that in and a dozen other things. Cut the fat. We go through 12 to 20 years of education at tremendous costs. I sincerely believe that we could get an order of magnitude better value. We retained the means of higher education but lost sight of its ends.

[sotojuan]

American college students are plagued by mediocre and high-school level courses universities like to call "the core". It's a huge waste of time and money not because of the stuff taught but because of it's level. Rarely anyone takes the core seriously and most try to get out of it.

[fu9ar]

And legions of STEM graduates with poor critical thinking skills believe that is the norm for the liberal arts and post ceaselessly with poor grammar and qualitative reasoning about the superiority of their academic discipline. It is like an underwater basketweaving major taking one requires remedial course and declaring that all of Mathematics is blow off easy stuff.

[douche]

As Twain said, "I never let my schooling get in the way of my education"

Schooling is about doing what you have to do to get that piece of paper that signals you are worthy - anything beyond marking time and checking the boxes is your own responsibility. Once you've learned to read (which should only take through 1st or 2nd grade), the world and all the accumulated knowledge of mankind opens up to you, as long as you're willing to go after it.

[intopieces]

>the world and all the accumulated knowledge of mankind opens up to you, as long as you're willing to go after it.

And have the time and access, two things that are lacking for many who are willing to go after it.

I could have learned twice what I did in college were I not working 40 hours a week to pay my rent and feed myself.

[thaumasiotes]

> The university was originally for well-off children of aristocracy or those training for religious studies. Perhaps those students pursued "education" purely for education's sake... along with the "grand tour" of Europe, etc. Those young adults didn't have to get a job so the "purpose" of university schooling wasn't intermingled with impure motives of economics. (E.g. I get my rich dad's inheritance regardless of how well I learn Greek/Latin).

I'll restrict this comment to education for the aristocracy rather than religious functionaries. Its traditional function is well-understood, and bears little relationship to what you might think of as "education", the development of knowledge, today. The purpose of elite education is to acculturate the elite into a harmonious social group, with shared values and a shared cultural background -- such that, when two elites meet for the first time, they can interact comfortably and don't come across as off-putting to one another. So you have things like classics education; it doesn't really matter which texts are "classics", and their content is of no use in itself -- but as long as everyone has read the same "classic" works, they'll get each other's references and feel that they're all part of the same group.

[Joof]

At one point in my college life I decided I wanted to actually learn material that seemed important. Attempting to do this lead to an extroidinary depression; the professors often don't care and the system itself is fairly inefficient.