A Vision of Students Today

@Leah-
I'm really quite intrigued by your experiences, both under homeschooling and when you went to college. Can you elaborate more on both the method and subject matter in your home schooling and the sort of study you attempted in college? How were the teaching methods inadequate there? If you look at old liberal arts textbooks (that hint to course work of the day) in Google books, were things better suited 100 years ago? My hypothesis is that today's liberal arts education is but a hollow shell of that offered 100 years ago. The Classical Education of the Western Tradition is nearly dead and "liberal arts" fields of study in American Universities are largely fluff. Agree or Disagree? Your point of view is highly relevant.

@ Tom,
I don't want to back & forth every line, but one thing is worth responding to. The reason that the price of a college tuition is increasing at twice the pace of inflation is because for every poor kid the school admits for free, a wealthier kid has to pay double -- essentially they are paying their own tuition and that of the one getting the free ride.

And for what it's worth, I knew a lot of Asian kids in engineering school who could afford the big $, because their father was a rich industrialist from either Taiwan, Thailand, Singapore, &c. They aren't all there getting free rides form their homeland.

Education (especially a college education) is not a right or an entitlement. You (or your parents) need to be responsible for educating yourself or paying for admission to a place that will do so. Having the bill being footed by YOU ensures that you choose the school wisely AND work hard while you are there AND pick a field of study that will enable you to pay your bills upon exit. Why should the costs for all this be foisted off on other people?

I worked my ass off in high school and got great grades and excellent test scores, and was even offered a partial scholarship to a prestigious school. The only problem was that "partial" meant $3,000 for a school that cost $25,000/year.

So I worked full-time and attended a state school full-time (so that I qualified for a meager grant that barely covered the class costs - not including books/fees). Even still, I have thousands of dollars of debt in student loans to pay back. See, because I didn't have a degree yet, I never made over $10/hr, which isn't a lot when you have books, rent, bills, food, insurance and various other expenses to take care of.

Giving away an education would NOT be a problem for those who achieve and who want to achieve. As long as the basis of the grant is merit-based, then why would there be an issue? If your GPA drops below a certain level, you lose your funding - simple as that.

What's the problem with investing in and bettering the human beings our country produces?

I think Millenials need to start asking themselves, is empathy enough? Is empathy alone effective? You can care all you want, but caring isn't action.

@Aramax: "I would just love to see teachers show students how to do a certain job by actually performing this job in front of them and giving them the chance to experience it themselves"

Didn't they do that in Monty Python's "Meaning of Life"?

Joking aside, they do that all the time, they're called "internships".