Posted on 06/13/2015 5:32:07 AM PDT by TurboZamboni
Pick up any paper or magazine, and you’re likely to see a front-page article on college: It costs too much, spawns too much debt is or isn’t worth it. I entered academia 52 years ago as a student of Latin and Greek expecting to enter a placid sector of American life, and now find my chosen profession at the center of a media maelstrom. With college replacing high school as the required ticket for a career, what used to be a quiet corner is now a favorite target of policymakers and pundits. Unfortunately, most commentary on the value of college is naive, or worse, misleading. Here’s what I mean. First, most everyone now evaluates college in purely economic terms, thus reducing it to a commodity like a car or a house. How much does the average English major at college X earn 18 months after graduation? What is the average debt of college Y’s alumni? How much does it cost to attend college Z, and is it worth it? How much more does the “average” college grad earn over a lifetime than someone with only a high school degree? (The current number appears to be about $1 million.) There is now a cottage industry built around such data.
(Excerpt) Read more at theoaklandpress.com ...
I was an English major when they still taught English, and it has served me very well in my chosen profession for almost fifty years.
However, had I studied lumpen-Marxism, hooking up, and smoking dope, I’m not sure I would have done as well.
Using Florida’s prepaid college program my son graduated F.A.U. With a business degree.
He is4 months away from his M.B.A. International bid ness and says he will Never be able to thank his mom and I cause he owes not a dime.
Author makes a number of valid arguments, but misses the point that traditional college is not the only way to obtain the same value.
These "academics" certainly are full of themselves!
So?......How much more over a lifetime does someone with an IQ above 115 earn in a lifetime with or without a college degree?
Charles Murray's work points out that the minimum needed to have any reasonable chance of graduating from college is an IQ of 115 and much higher for the STEM courses.
Intelligence and drive ( not the college degree) are likely the key ingredients in how much a person earns.
This week in my class in Design we needed to hand in our first project. One young woman was in tears. Her project did not meet the specifications for size. I spoke with her during break. She told me that she does not know how to measure using a ruler or tape measure. Fractions and decimals are a mystery. What? Measure 1.5 inches from the top and 2 inches from the bottom? She couldn't do it.
This young woman's goal is to be a graphic designer. There is NO NO NO possible way she can reach that goal without a complete reeducation in basic arithmetic. The college is taking money from a student that has no hope of completing the program without major remedial courses . She is accumulating debt on her hopeless quest.
My conclusion: Colleges are a racket and, in this girl's case, it will be the taxpayers who will get the final bill.
Griggs vs Duke Power is what caused all of this.
Years ago companies had apprenticeship programs and would fill their own needs. After Griggs, it placed the credentialing to the colleges and thereby took the companies out of the self education business.
How much would a personal tutor in English composition and literature cost as compared to taking a formal college course?
So, the intangible value of a college education versus the tangible cost of same. The ROI appears to be very bad.
Kids coming out of high school 50 years ago were probably more educated that (some) college graduates today.
That poor girl you talked about. Shame on the college for taking her tuition money!
I had a new civil engineer that couldn’t accurately measure a roughed in opening for an industrial door. I had him go beck twice and finally took him myself.
I find that mastery is only learned OJT.
The frightening thing is that once degreed, they think they are done with learning and study.
The value of education cannot be overestimated, but there are many ways to educate yourself. The biggest benefit of education is the ability to think critically about the world. Those who hide behind dogma and try to fit the entire world into their box of perception are intellectually lazy and short-sighted. The big advances in science, industry and technology come from people who think differently about how things are and how they can be, and they do not necessarily have a college degree. Rather, what they all have is a mind that is open to possibilities.
That said, formal higher education is worth a great deal if it teaches you to actually think.
That may be true for people who went to college a lifetime ago.
But given the exorbitant increase in tuition costs over that "lifetime," and the transformation of colleges during that "lifetime" into idiot factories that mainly teach racism and left wing indoctrination, I don't think the "lifetime" statistic has any relevance at all.
In fact, I think it's downright misleading, because it has nothing to do with the modern college experience.
If it didn’t come with Marxist indoctrination the writer may have a point.
That's the major difference. Previously, schools were instituted to teach young people how to think. Now, their purpose is to teach young people WHAT to think.
I earned my liberal arts degree (BA in musicology) 40 years ago, back in the day when one's curriculum included required courses in science, mathematics, history (NOT social studies), philosophy, a language (3 years), as well as your major. No such courses like "Feminist Environmental Justice".
My degree was worth every penny. The major didn't pan out to much of a career, but the underlying coursework taught me how to think critically and also how to write (guess all those term papers using Turabian's Guide was worth something!).
My college education also helped me in my eventual career field of software engineering (did you know musicians make excellent programmers?). Down the road a ways, I also earned my MBA...
Wintertime, long time since I’ve seen you here. ;o)
In my experience, persistance is more important than intelligence in being successful.
I went to college (45 years ago) to get an education and never viewed college as vocational training. But I was serious about getting a real education and took the hard courses in science, mathematics and economics. My education served me well.
The majors in Sociology, Black Studies, Elementary Education, Gender Theory and the like are a complete waste of time and money. They are simply the “path of least resistance”, and employers know that. I have no idea why parents allow their kids to waste 4 years on such drivel.
government has no place in education...
everything it touches becomes MORE EXPENSIVE AND INEFFICIENT...AND corrupt
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