Your first three bullets are all the same thing. “How to think” and knowledge of culture are marketable skills, as is experience with cutting-edge research.
I don’t know where you got the idea that learning about “art” is an essential job of college. I wish it were, but it’s not. And I agree that college sports are too big of their own business.
Fundamentally you cannot “train” people for jobs that don’t exist yet. I went to college only 2 decades ago and nothing remotely like my job existed at the time.
You can educate people in college though, and that is what is required to keep our society moving forward. (And prevent it from sliding backward.)
> you cannot “train” people for jobs that don’t exist yet
I've heard this phrase multiple times before... and yet, doctors have been studying bio, lawyers studying laws/cases, and engineers math - for hundreds of years. I don't want someone who did 4 years of philosophy and knows how to think deeply about things performing my heart surgery.
The first three bullet points are not the same thing partly because one of those bullet points specifically addresses job training, and one addresses "how to think". You're right that knowing how to think is important, but acting like hard skills don't exist is taking things too far imo.
The vast majority of the education of doctors, lawyers, engineers, and other professionals is teaching them how to think. Hard skills are covered of course but it is well understood (and clearly presented) that they are perishable. This is why these professions tend to have a focus on, and in some cases requirement for, continuing education throughout the career.
I don’t know where you got the idea that learning about “art” is an essential job of college. I wish it were, but it’s not. And I agree that college sports are too big of their own business.
Fundamentally you cannot “train” people for jobs that don’t exist yet. I went to college only 2 decades ago and nothing remotely like my job existed at the time.
You can educate people in college though, and that is what is required to keep our society moving forward. (And prevent it from sliding backward.)