The Just Thought I'd Share Thread

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Originally Posted by LikeAWillow

I agree that students learn more from each other than they do in class, but I've actually found that I've learned much more about how to communicate in the business world from internships than from anything else.

i.t.a.

I think internships are very important, for many different reasons. I personally didn't do any - and now I wish I had.
They're starting to move towards "integrating" outside experience with classroom work - which I think is GREAT. For example, somebody might do an internship at a law office, and the work they do there would also be discussed in a pre-law class. Meanwhile there could be a club to join which focuses on the same issues that the law firm does; and meanwhile a history class could cover the history behind the legal issues being discussed. They're trying to present the big picture and how it all connects together, in other words - I think that's fantastic, personally. At the least it should make it much more interesting - and practical.

Originally Posted by LikeAWillow

I think your comment on the use of college vocabulary is interesting, but here we part ways. I've found the most effective communication is clear and concise, and it rarely, if ever, requires a lexicon above that of a moderately gifted high school sophomore.

I can actually agree with that, at least to a point. I can tell you that there's a writer I admire very much - Samantha Power - the Obama advisor that got in trouble awhile back for calling Hillary a "monster" - I consider her a VERY good writer - she won the Pulitzer Prize so it's not like I'm the only one with that opinion. Anyway, they once asked her about it and one of the tips she gave was, "NEVER use the big word when the small word will do." What she really meant i.m.o. was "don't use the big word - use the right word."
At any rate though, I can tell you that when I was taking graduate classes in Education at S.U., I noticed that the students - no matter what their major - were talking (in general) at a high school or even junior high school level when they entered (although I have no doubt that most would do okay on a writing and vocabulary test) - but by the time they got to junior or senior year, they were talking like "educated adults." Of course, it's totally debatable, how much actual influence the college had on that; it could easily be argued that it's just "normal maturation" or whatever. But i.m.o., college at least let them feel encouraged, that it's "okay" and even expected to talk that way. Granted communication isn't everything - persistence, hard work, and all of that, of course - but considering what people are paying in tuition these days I figure they might as well get their money's worth. Syracuse University undergrad in my opinion is a PERFECT example - they're talking about something called "value per dollar" in Education these days - the VALUE of an S.U. undergraduate education is (i.m.o.) very, very high. But the COST is so ridiculously expensive that it may literally not be worth it, from any point-of-view. SUNY Buffalo for example may not (in some majors) provide as good an education as S.U. But the "value per dollar" at S.U. might be, for example, 0.9, whereas it might be 2 at SUNY Buffalo. That would obviously make Buffalo the better choice - whether S.U. likes it or not. And that means that S.U. has some thinking to do...
All "i.m.o.," of course.