The question becomes if other fields that have traditionally been popular are now irrelevant. According to Bock this is not so. Bock himself acknowledges the importance of “liberal arts” especially when combined “with other disciplines,” which can provide great “backgrounds” to develop useful skills (Friedman, 2014). This is the primary concern of Bock; what can build effective skills that you can use in the real world. He looks for creativity, and Google looks for “cognitive ability — the ability the learn things and solve problems,” for they find it “invaluable” to “understand and apply information” (Friedman, 2014). That is what matters in the end. Really Bock does not want people to have the mindset that they absolutely need to go down the college route just because it is expected, but that they instead should really think out what they need to do, and if college is the most reasonable route to achieve what they desire (Friedman, 2014).
I will say as I did in my last blog on part 1 of this topic, I agree with this philosophy to a great extent, yet have to emphasize how important college can be if you decide to go down that route. Ultimately, however, as Bock argues, it should be a thought out process in which other options are weighed as well. Plus, I would like to add the importance of picking a career that you really enjoy. On the topic of if I myself preparing to get my students jobs at Google; I would have to state that I have made some strides to get my students collaborative, build some cognition, claim ownership of their thoughts, and build some expertise, but as a new teacher I have a bit of a way to go. My last blog post acknowledged cognitive, leadership, ownership, expertise, and humility skills, and though I have address some of these to a degree I could currently make strides towards a more student-centered format that would more effectively hit these, and thus Google’s benchmarks. Am I currently preparing my students to work at Google? Not quite yet, but I am working towards moving further in the direction that would prepare them, and once I get some more autonomy over my own class, I will push for these shifts.
References:
Friedman, T. L. (2014, April 19). How to Get a Job at Google, Part 2. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/20/opinion/sunday/friedman-how-to-get-a-job-at-google-part-2.html