This post is a reflection upon an article I read over the weekend in the Wall Street Journal about a company that is offering fellowships to high school seniors who agree to skip college and enter the company’s workforce for a fellowship evolving into a career.
The company being featured — Palantir — is a data analytics company that flourishes largely on government contracts in defense and intelligence. The fellowships turned out to be more than just internships – more than just learn on the job, so to speak.
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The initial four-week seminar for the first 22 fellows focused on the foundations of the West, U.S. history and its unique culture, movements within America, and case studies of leaders including Abraham Lincoln and Winston Churchill.
That got me thinking: I spent four years obtaining a bachelor’s in world history and a minor ini philosophy, and I probably could’ve been just as enriched by an intensive four-weeker such as Palantir’s — and then ushered into a profession of my choice.
A model for future training and education? I tend to think so.
What you get now from a typical bachelor’s program is indoctrination into far-left worldviews, aka socialism and communism. Hell, I was a communist daydreamer when I finished college during the height of the Vietnam War. I even visited Karl Marx’s grave after finishing my post-college stint as a naval officer.
Getting back to Palantir: a post for its program reads: “College is broken. Admissions are based on flawed criteria. Meritocracy and excellence are no longer the pursuits of educational institutions.” The post leaves out the part about communist indoctrination, or something eerily similar.
Back to my naval experience: After obtaining a commission as an Ensign, I — a liberal arts major — was sent to engineering school, where in 12 weeks I learned the fundamentals of nuclear power generation and the operation of nuclear-powered engines aboard ships.
I probably learned as much practically speaking as a college graduate would in nuclear engineering, at least when it came to the operational aspects in real life.
Anyway, that’s past history, but my point is that college for most people can either be eliminated or greatly shortened.
Does a doctor or lawyer really need to get a bachelor’s and then spend another three years learning their craft? Couldn’t it all be accomplished in a four-year, practice-based curriculum, or even a three-year, or Marx forbid, a shorter period?
Think of accounting. You could learn enough of that profession in high school to embark upon an internship, where in short order you’d learn and master everything you’d need for a career.
Anyway, hats off to Palantir and its first class of fellows. I hope this signals the onset of a complete revamping of how we view — and implement — education in America.
