Education past high school???
By wifeofharvey
@wifeofharvey (1156)
United States
February 26, 2009 9:54pm CST
The other night President Obama was talking about the need for our young people to have education beyond high school. He mentioned how students would be able to exchange community service time for tuition. I think that is great, but I wonder why no one talks about utilizing our existing class rooms and school building more fully? Couldn't those class rooms be used in the evening hours for some of those classes beyond high school level. I know many communities do have SOME adult education classes but these are only for a short time. There is no broad use of these facilities. Don't you think government should look at making wider use of these facilities?
4 responses
@wifeofharvey (1156)
• United States
27 Feb 09
You are right, some of those building need replaced or repaired drastically. Would it be more cost effcient to build new or repair? And not all of them are in bad shape. Some of them are pretty new and could be used. I think that there are a lot of people very willing to trade community service hours for continuing education. In fact, it wouldn't need to be college credit classes at all. A lot of great classes could be offered, like budgeting for families, homemaking and home repair classes. Gardening, just plain old every day skills for living.
1 person likes this
@ElicBxn (63252)
• United States
27 Feb 09
well, I know I was in a group that used a middle school building and they had to rent the room because the school district had to keep someone there to make sure the room was locked up and the building was locked up - and the time they were there had to cover the cost of covering the extra time for the building custodian. Now, it was spread out amoung various groups, but there was still a cost to it.
I don't think most school districts would want to hire an extra person just to come thru at the end of a second shift to empty trashes and lock up the building, even if really they could make more money in the long run - penny wise, pound foolish
1 person likes this
@winterose (39887)
• Canada
27 Feb 09
I can answer that because I don't know the colleges there but I know in montreal the univesities are open until midnight and some research departments are open after midnight as well.
1 person likes this
@wifeofharvey (1156)
• United States
28 Feb 09
That is wonderful!!!! I hope more and more colleges and universities will follow that lead.
@spalladino (17891)
• United States
27 Feb 09
It would depend on the area and the facilities available. When I lived in Maryland I worked at a community college and we had plenty of classroom space for additional classes. Now that I live in a more rural area in south central Florida, where nothing is nearby, they have made use of some of the high schools for college courses sponsored by some of the community colleges in the area. I do strongly agree with the idea of continuing on with your education beyond high school. Everyone should have specialized training and marketable skills...especially in this economy.
@wifeofharvey (1156)
• United States
28 Feb 09
Well said, we all need to keep learning. I am a senior citizen and not employable for health reasons, but I try to keep learning. I can no longer take classes, and internet classes seem to be out of my budget but I still find ways to continue learning. Silly stuff sometimes, other times very useful things. I believe that continued learning helps keep our minds [brains] from deteriorating.
@oyenkai (4394)
• Philippines
15 Jun 09
If you're speaking about public school facilities then it's a good argument and earns a counter argument: President Obama's suggestion speaks about students earning their own tuition fees. It is assumed that they would attend in already existing classes. These classes already have rooms/facilities where they're held, and they already have faculties/staff/teachers/professors attending to them, their electric bills,etc. are also already accounted for. If the government were to "utilize" the existing public school facilities, then they would have to arrange for more teachers to handle such classes - students might have to work more because the expenses the government would be covering is also bigger: more teachers, higher bills, etc.
Thanks for the response on my discussion :)
