Russia has 54% of people with higher education, compared to us at 44%. In fact, it's the most "educated" country in the world. Bet you didn't know that...
Look at how that worked out for them.
The value of education is greatly overstated. (and on the other hand people who claim education is soooo important for a good society conveniently pretend things like culture, religion, morals, etc don't exist).
You need quality education not just quantity. Degrees from some universities in some countries might not be worth anything because anyone can get them and many do just because they've been conditioned that having that piece of paper changes your life for the best, and so No-Name universities appear to cater to that market creating a "degree inflation" where too many people have degrees but they're worthless.
True, we need quality education. But efforts to expand the quantity of education and educators here in the US have resulted in lower quality everywhere. Look at the steep degradation of NYC public schools over the last hundred years despite receiving ever increasing funds and benefits. See Harvard and other higher ed dropping merit requirements at all levels and being embroiled in plagiarism scandals.
Sometimes less is more. What was originally meant to help the <5% of the non-elite youth who were intellectually gifted or uniquely driven has mutated into a destructive-for-all-parties incentive pushed on 50+% of the population to follow. Quality of output requires quality of input, so returning to merit standards is a must.
A handful of top universities in US are better than top universities in Russia, but I seriously doubt that there's a significant difference between average university in Russia and average one in US when it comes to quality. If you are believe that US does not have a problem with crap universities awarding worthless diplomas, you are very wrong.
Comments
Strongly disagree.
Russia has 54% of people with higher education, compared to us at 44%. In fact, it's the most "educated" country in the world. Bet you didn't know that...
Look at how that worked out for them.
The value of education is greatly overstated. (and on the other hand people who claim education is soooo important for a good society conveniently pretend things like culture, religion, morals, etc don't exist).
You need quality education not just quantity. Degrees from some universities in some countries might not be worth anything because anyone can get them and many do just because they've been conditioned that having that piece of paper changes your life for the best, and so No-Name universities appear to cater to that market creating a "degree inflation" where too many people have degrees but they're worthless.
True, we need quality education. But efforts to expand the quantity of education and educators here in the US have resulted in lower quality everywhere. Look at the steep degradation of NYC public schools over the last hundred years despite receiving ever increasing funds and benefits. See Harvard and other higher ed dropping merit requirements at all levels and being embroiled in plagiarism scandals.
Sometimes less is more. What was originally meant to help the <5% of the non-elite youth who were intellectually gifted or uniquely driven has mutated into a destructive-for-all-parties incentive pushed on 50+% of the population to follow. Quality of output requires quality of input, so returning to merit standards is a must.
A handful of top universities in US are better than top universities in Russia, but I seriously doubt that there's a significant difference between average university in Russia and average one in US when it comes to quality. If you are believe that US does not have a problem with crap universities awarding worthless diplomas, you are very wrong.