It was ridiculous trying to work during that third period.

Oh that’s just cruel!

Ford seems to be arguing for not taking any courses that aren’t directly beneficial to some economic purpose

I mean, if you read the article, it’s pretty clear the students understand he’s talking about programs as a whole. Heck, most economically viable majors require you to take courses to become a well rounded person.

I agree that people should expand their horizons but asking us to subsidize that, when there are a hundred open online courses freely available is a little silly. (And if you read my original comment, the notion that I’m helping pay for kids to watch movies in class because they refuse to do so as homework? Just gross.) Heck, my mom just finished a comparative religion course via Stanford online and had a blast.

Money is a limited resource. While there are many fascinating courses, and heck, I could spend a lifetime learning if someone was willing to pay the bill, if you’re asking society to pay for you to learn things, society is willing to do that as an investment in the future. While medieval history is fascinating, that’s not a great investment for the rest of us.

my non-tech uni courses were most beneficial to my overall capabilities in my tech job

Yes but I imagine, y’know, getting the tech skills, was pretty fundamental to getting the tech job. If you’d applied saying “I don’t know a thing about tech BUT I am a well rounded person” they would have laughed you out the door.

Probably not put super well but the basic idea is fairly reasonable. I graduated with folks who majored in stuff they really enjoyed (critical lit, history, philosophy) and then had a rude awakening when it turned there weren’t many businesses with a burning need for someone who could explain the significance of the battle of Hastings.

From the other side, I have a buddy who teaches a film course. According to him, if he assigns a movie as homework, only a quarter of the students will actually watch it. So he started failing kids. Well, the institution did not like that so now he legitimately shows movies in class for a huge chunk of his class time. I love movies and film fests but I feel less than ideal about subsidising a course on them and feel downright annoyed to subsidize kids sitting and watching fucking movies in class time.

Like I say, I don’t hate Ford’s basic thrust here.