Posted on 08/02/2021 7:16:15 AM PDT by karpov
Long before Covid, mental health experts declared a different sort of pandemic—a precipitous decline in mental health on college campuses.
One 2019 survey by the American College Health Association found that over the course of a year, 55.9 percent of students reported feeling hopelessness, 65.6 percent reported feeling very lonely, 70.8 percent reported feeling very sad, and 65.7 percent reported overwhelming anxiety. Nearly half said that at some point in the year they felt so depressed that it was difficult to function.
This data creates an odd disjunction. College, after all, publicly signifies opportunity, success, and even the American Dream—and yet, far from feeling empowered by these supposed institutional vehicles of success, many students buckle under the weight of loneliness and anxiety.
According to one common explanation, college life simply puts too much pressure on students, who feel the need to perform academically so they can get a good job. While certainly a feature, the pressure to perform falls short of explaining the problem. Economic pressure exists everywhere, so why does college uniquely lend itself to anxiety? Why depression and loneliness?
Along with the rigors of the university, our national obsession with college shares at least some of the blame. While college often alienates students, our public policy and culture increasingly mandate that all young people pursue a college degree—and this is a recipe for our campus mental health crisis and its attendant consequences.
Higher education carries an almost salvific status in American society. Graduates of elite universities receive immense esteem and opportunity, bolstered by the rhetoric and policy of our major businesses, nonprofits, and of course, schools. Out of the nation’s ten largest charter school networks, a majority explicitly tout college admissions and attendance as their raison d’etre.
(Excerpt) Read more at jamesgmartin.center ...
No, Hillary losing the election triggered this spate of insanity.
I don't believe this. If anything, standards for American universities have dropped greatly in the last 30 years. For many, college is simply extended high school
18-22 are very formative years. Given the cultural, social and sexual free-for-all that is leftist academia, we shouldn't be surprised many students become despondent.
Given that liberalism (in the modern, not Jeffersonian definition of the word) is a mental disorder and given that it is the state religion on most college campuses, it is only natural that mental disorders are rampant on college campuses.
Perhaps the Sorrows of Young Werther should be required reading for college entrance.
If the Cultural Marxist were unemployable to the man and woman — in private institutions, business, and government … even retail behind the cash register or pumping gas — rather than running the universities it would not be the case that kids were becoming maniacs through maleducation.
No...it’s not having a positive FOCUS outside of YOURSELF!
If you go just get a real degree like engineering or something like that
Seems like a real stretch to me. If there’s a “mental health crisis” on college campuses, I’d say it’s directly attributable to one thing: these campuses are filled with stunted misfits who go to college for all the wrong reasons.
Exactly. College today is at the middle school level of a few decades ago. Tiny little assignments, “tutors” who will do the work of any student in need, and easy grading assure that it is no sweat. “Mental health” is a self-assessed critical issue for many students, however.
The “Underemployment Rate” [~11% to ~73%] is the often sad reality of the college graduate labor market:
https://www.newyorkfed.org/research/college-labor-market/college-labor-market_compare-majors.html
Colleges today are indoctrination centers that will cause the normal to go insane if they are not strong enough to resist.
The vast benefits of college:
Starting salary Social Worker: $23 an hour. https://www.salary.com/research/salary/posting/entry-level-social-worker-salary
Starting salary plumber: $28 an hour. https://www.salary.com/research/salary/benchmark/plumber-hourly-wages
Average debt of college graduate: $37,000
https://educationdata.org/average-student-loan-debt-by-year
Guess who makes more after 10 years, the plumber or the social worker?
College is over rated. An education is important, but the trades are ignored in the US and in fact suffer from a low prestige all awhile you have critical shortages in several trades.
We have an education system which pushes college, college, college... even though less than half will ever graduate from college even with a soft mushy liberal arts degree (future Democrats). Only 42% will graduate with a four year degree, and MOST of those will graduate with a WORTHLESS college degree: https://www.bestcolleges.com/news/analysis/2021/07/01/how-many-americans-have-college-degrees/#:~:text=Nearly%2094%20million%2C%20or%2042,percentage%20of%20college%2Ddegree%20holders.
Not everyone is cut out for college. But does our K-12 education system take that into account and provide the other 60% of the children with an education that can provide them a decent wage when they graduate? Nope. What sort of job does a high school degree give you?
***In summary. You have critical shortages in some trades. These pay very well. But the US education system pushes everyone to go to college, even though we know most will not graduate, most will get a BA in under water basket weaving just to fulfill the societal right-of-passage in getting that degree.
Furthermore, today in the US everything is a college degree, even things which should be trades... College to be law enforcement? A fireman? A nurse? Now, even automotive mechanic? No.
These are trades. They are vocations that are hands on, learned by using your hands and through experience. While every job as a theoretical and practical component to it, these trades are mostly learned by doing them, they are less theoretical in nature but here in the US we have managed to take vocations and make them into professions requiring a college degree.
Young kids play with gadgets individually instead of balls collectively.
This makes it harder for kids to develop strong social skills.
Oh man. 2 year community colleges on the trimester system is the answer. Learn a trade. I’d even go for M-F boarding schools for troubled youth-military style. Force them home on weekends so that they can see the difference in structure.
But you can make money without out going to college.....
Yeah, taking 9 hours a semester and 5+ years of free government money is so very stressful these days. Poor widdle babies. Heaven forbid if there’s a green crayon shortage.
I took 21 hours every semester, had a couple of part time jobs and was involved in extra curriculars that took a lot of time and graduated in 3 years to save money. Guess what, there was plenty of time to kick back and have tons of fun. Zero stress.
Blue collar or white collar working in a cubicle. Makes no difference. Even a 20 year-old will have limited opportunities. Start them out with fewer hoers and lower pay. They’ll get more serious and employable once they start really maturing.
College ain’t all it’s cracked up to be.
I entered college at age 17, and had switched majors by the second semester. I stopped out, and enlisted in the service (those were the days of “universal military training”, and the draft hung over every young man’s head). Four years, two months, and twenty-four days later, I resumed my pursuit of a college degree, for a couple years, then went into work for the state government. Got out of that, worked for a couple foundations and private industry, with a short time as a drop-in at college (did not even make it a semester that time), then went farming for a while. It was then, at age 33, I decided it was time to finish out some kind of degree, and capitalizing on my farming experience, I got a degree in Animal Science, with a strong minor in chemistry, and after some eighteen years, finally was awarded my Bachelor of Science. Spent some time out in California (BIG disappointment in many ways), returned to home state, and pursued a Master’s degree, in some 18 months or so, because it was on the GI bill, and about the best paying job I could land for a while.
Just about EVERY prospective college student should take a sabbatical before going ahead with the collection of a degree. Life is a balance of many things, few of which are learned in a lecture hall.
A college education and the Covid pandemic are two of the biggest scams on the 21st century.
Prove me wrong.
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