Temat: Waste of a good education:

http://polandian.wordpress.com/2008/08/17/waste-of-a-g...

Poland must be right up there in terms of the number of people with a higher education. If nothing else, the depth of knowledge displayed in the comments we receive here on Polandian is a good indication of a relatively well educated country. Reading through the comments on the post below, it might be reasonable to assume that quite a few people chose history as their subject! Companies are attracted to Poland because of its strong supply of well educated people (and then give them jobs in call centres!). This is all well and good. No doubt in my mind that, generally speaking, one can have a far better class of educated theoretical debate here in Poland than you can in the UK, but I can’t help wondering if that comes at a cost. The cost being generations of Poles who live so long in the molly-coddled environments of home and university that they are not ready to make real progress in the “outside world” until they are staring their 30th birthday in the face. Quite a few years behind similar generations from other European countries.

I'd agree with the author here.

I believe Poles value education too much at the expense of practical knowledge.

What do others think?warren whitmore edytował(a) ten post dnia 18.08.08 o godzinie 00:59

Temat: Waste of a good education:

I believe the author of that post has a valid point saying Polish people are often "well educated" but in a very impractical kind of way. The way I see it, my friends spent something like 16-18 years studying before they got a proper job - back in the eighties it was quite unusual for young people (college/high school students) to have part-time jobs (there were none to be had, except the OHP camps), so everything they did was just hang out with friends, and/or study. Going to the university was the top dream of every single person who wanted to achieve anything, so even the most moronic kids would do everything (and the parents would go on bribing the teachers) to achieve this goal.
That resulted in thirty-year-olds being social misfits in the sense of practical knowledge; hence all the "managers" who can only boast their MA in "marketing", and the disregard for people with their BA and lots of practical knowledge.
I started working, part-time, when I was about 16, helping out my aunt at her drugstore (dream job for a young girl; the store was one of the few in my town that had imported cosmetics!), then I did a few odd jobs both in Poland and abroad, and had a full-time teaching position by the time I was 21. Now most teachers I meet for job interviews will be between 25 and 35, most of them with no experience not only in teaching, but doing any other jobs. I say the interns that were in my old office had more impressive resumes - due to them being guided by all those student job organizations and "Biura Karier".

Temat: Waste of a good education:

In my opinion Polish educational system is a complete failure.

It`s true that from the very beginning we are taught theories. School teachers are not even prepared to teach practical things, they just copy the teaching patterns from their own youth. The result is that the learners are not instructed how/where to look for information and the Internet seems to be the only source of all knowlegde. At the same time, they are supposed to acquire the theoretical knowledge (not the way of searching for or using it...). So, being 19 years old, they have no practical knowledge at all, so they must go on.

It seems higher education doesn`t have to be connected with theories only, but then again...

The source of the superiority of theoretical studies over practical knowledge is connected with the existence of professors in the academic world. Most often they have theoretical knowledge which has nothing to do with real life. The rule "there is a professor, there is a subject" applies to all universities. No matter whether or not the subject is useful in one`s future job.

In the past, a person with an M.A. title was guaranteed to get a good job in Poland. At least my parents claim so.

Now it seems a vicious circle. The employers usually expect a candidate to be 20 years old, have a university degree and at least 3 years of practical experience. A long way to come before the situation gets normal.Violetta P. edytował(a) ten post dnia 18.08.08 o godzinie 09:54

Temat: Waste of a good education:

I wouldn’t call the Polish educational system a failure. I can tell you that it does come in handy while dealing with international issues, it not only looks good but it gives you a personal satisfaction to know that you’re education is at a level that can match international standards. Unlike here in the US where after finishing High School, you are still just as green in the theoretical field as an average Pole after finishing 8th grade, or less. (Unless of course you can afford private schooling.) Full stop.

What is missing from that equation is what our lovely ladies have mentioned before – practical knowledge – workshops, hands on training, internships and other such programs that allow young people to firstly pick up some necessary experience and figure out exactly what is it that they would like to be involved in once out of school.

In the US, kids in High Schools are already given choices of studies, which subjects to take and are able to participate in work related workshops as interns. High Schools offer subjects such as graphic design (not limited to just 3d design or silk screen but also working on real printing presses and learning about the entire process or putting out professional style prints), shop (which includes working on cars, machinery etc etc), architecture and many other such fields, so a lot of students graduate High School already having a great deal of information and practical knowledge regarding the field that they may be interested in. This helps greatly, given the fact that a lot of kids will not go to College due to prices.