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Have College Degrees Become Obsolete?
Accuracy in Academia ^ | January 26, 2018 | Malcolm A. Kline

Posted on 01/26/2018 6:51:32 AM PST by Academiadotorg

This is a question being asked on both sides of the Ivy-covered walls.

Charismatic TV host Mike Rowe, for example, strongly suggests that making bricks and mortar could be more lucrative than occupying buildings made of it. "People don't want these jobs because they are under a lot of mistaken assumptions about what they pay and whether or not they're good or bad jobs and all this other nonsense," Rowe said recently. "And meanwhile we've got 1½ trillion dollars in student loans."

"We're still telling our kids that a four-year degree is still the best path for most people."

Tom Quimby writes in The Washington Times that "Mr. Rowe's foundation, mikeroweWORKS.org, has awarded about 1,000 scholarships resulting in certifications for trades like welding, plumbing and carpentry."

An economist from George Mason University is making a surprisingly similar argument. "Typical students burn thousands of hours studying material that neither raises their productivity nor enriches their lives," Bryan Caplan writes in his new book The Case against Education: Why the Education System Is a Waste of Time and Money. "And of course, students can't waste time without experts to show them how."

George Leef of the James G. Martin Center for Education Renewal, notes that he has seen this trend even in professions widely viewed as demanding an advanced degree. "As most lawyers will attest, the knowledge they use in their work is rarely anything they recall from law school (see this piece by Hans Bader)," Leef, a lawyer himself, writes. "Rather, it was learned on the job."

"But they are not allowed to just apprentice into law firms any longer; first, they must go through college and then law school. That entails huge social costs that don't bring about any greater legal competence but do drive up the fees lawyers must charge."


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; News/Current Events; Philosophy
KEYWORDS: collegedegrees; lawschool
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A mind is a terrible thing to waste. So is time.
1 posted on 01/26/2018 6:51:32 AM PST by Academiadotorg
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To: Academiadotorg

We would not be that lucky.

Sadly the vast majority of employers have still consumed the Kool-Aid which says a bachelors degree is the MINIMUM entry requirement to most jobs.

Buying propaganda from universities that this precludes the need to spend one dime on employee training.


2 posted on 01/26/2018 6:54:06 AM PST by Buckeye McFrog
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To: Academiadotorg

Yeah, look what Harvard produced. Barak Obama. Yes degrees are a thing of the past.


3 posted on 01/26/2018 6:54:55 AM PST by rovenstinez
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To: Buckeye McFrog

The employers know what they want and don’t liste to the peanut gallery


4 posted on 01/26/2018 6:55:26 AM PST by bert (K.E.; N.P.; GOPc;WASP .... The Fourth Estate is the Fifth Column)
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To: Academiadotorg

I have been arguing for years we need a 2-track postsecondary system: 1 track for colleges/universities, another for trades.

They should be EQUAL — in financial support, status and government backing.

I 100% assure you plumbers, electricians and welders will be needed for more years than almost everyone on the planet will be alive.

It is kids being forced into college and then doing nothing of use that resulted in the college debt “crisis.”


5 posted on 01/26/2018 6:57:48 AM PST by freedumb2003 (obozo took 8 years to try to destroy us. Trump took 1 to rebuild us. MAGA!!)
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To: Academiadotorg

Not obsolete, just too worthless...................


6 posted on 01/26/2018 7:00:26 AM PST by Red Badger (Wanna surprise? Google your own name. Wanna have fun? Google your friends names......)
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To: Academiadotorg

See Freeper post two articles down: College Students Smear Themselves With Fake Menstrual Blood.

So . . . I guess the answer, is “yes.”


7 posted on 01/26/2018 7:00:27 AM PST by oldplayer
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To: rovenstinez
Yeah, look what Harvard produced. Barak Obama. Yes degrees are a thing of the past.

Hey don't forget that Sheila Jackson Lee is a product of Yale and the U of Virginia law school.

8 posted on 01/26/2018 7:03:39 AM PST by The Sons of Liberty (URANIUM ONE = BRIBERY, TREASON, aid and comfort to the enemy - HANG THEM ALL!!!!)
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To: bert

Peanut gallery?

Problem is they don’t listen to anybody.
Just like Hillary, arrogance is at the root of the problem here.


9 posted on 01/26/2018 7:06:28 AM PST by Buckeye McFrog
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To: The Sons of Liberty

Some of the most useless human beings I have ever met had degrees from impressive elite colleges.


10 posted on 01/26/2018 7:07:06 AM PST by Buckeye McFrog
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To: Academiadotorg

Education is just one way to get marketable skills. Pretty much all the social engineering crap is a waste.


11 posted on 01/26/2018 7:07:29 AM PST by budj (Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!)
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To: rovenstinez

College degrees are not a waste of time.

If you want an engineer, physician, chemist, mathematician, etc. a degree system is still a necessity, unless you want to hire someone who *wants* to do those things, and would you want to fly on a plane designed by a high school graduate with desire and no degree or one designed by an aeronautical engineer?

So, no. Degrees are not obsolete. But what should be obsolete is demanding a stupid Master’s degree to be a social worker, or any kind of black/homosexual/racial/womans/mens degrees.

And I am sure we can think of others.


12 posted on 01/26/2018 7:08:33 AM PST by rlmorel (Leftists: American Liberty is the egg that requires breaking to make their Utopian omelette.)
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To: Academiadotorg
"We're still telling our kids that a four-year degree is still the best path for most people."

I'm not telling my son that. I'm recommending to him that he do a hitch in the military; work to gain experience in a couple of different areas so he will have half an idea of what interests him; and then decide whether he wants to take the college route, become an expert at some trade, stay in the military, or go some other way. He knows, though, that he will not be allowed to continue to live rent-free with his mother and me, and that we are not going to financial support him after high school graduation.

13 posted on 01/26/2018 7:09:16 AM PST by WayneS (An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last. - Winston Churchill)
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To: Academiadotorg

In a college town, it’s impossible to get a job for “just” a high school grad above basic labor (even with work exp) and it’s impossible to get anything after you have a BS degree because you’re “overqualified”. They just keep hiring “working through college” kids who turn over every four-five years.


14 posted on 01/26/2018 7:09:45 AM PST by Southern Magnolia
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To: Academiadotorg
University of Massachusetts at Amherst

Doctoral Degree: Social Justice Education Concentration

Social justice education (SJE) is an interdisciplinary concentration of study with a focus on social diversity and social justice as they apply to formal and informal educational systems. It uses and generates research and theory to understand the sociocultural and historical contexts and dynamics of specific manifestations of oppression in social systems. These include but are not limited to racism, classicism, ableism, sexism, heterosexism, religious oppression, transgender oppression and youth oppression. SJE brings together faculty and students with interests in issues of social diversity inclusion, equity, social justice, critical theories, cultural studies, ethnic studies, feminist studies, critical pedagogies, critical methodologies, dialogues across differences, youth and community-based research and practice.

The goal of the SJE concentration is to prepare scholars and educational leaders who can promote social diversity and social justice in education settings through the development of theoretical and practical knowledge, empirical research, and the use of effective social justice education practices.

It engages students in the interrogation and further theorizing of social justice issues and social justice education practices for the purpose of developing knowledge capable of fostering educational environments that are socially just, diverse, inclusive, and equitable.

Students are experienced educational professionals, such as classroom teachers, school counselors, staff development professional, education administrators, student affairs programmers, special educators, youth cultural workers, or college residential educators. They work closely with a faculty guidance committee to plan a course of study that leads to the successful completion of the doctoral degree. Graduates are employed as university faculty, education leaders and administrators in a variety of educational settings including private and public schools, non-governmental organizations, K-12 and youth-based settings, and university and college settings.

This program will not be accepting new applicants for the 2018-2019 academic year. We welcome applications for the 2019-2020 academic year, which is the next time that the program will admit new students.

Program of Study

Contact

For more information contact:

Judy Pierce

Department Administrator

Email: judithpierce@umass.edu

15 posted on 01/26/2018 7:10:02 AM PST by pabianice (LINE)
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To: Buckeye McFrog
"...Some of the most useless human beings I have ever met had degrees from impressive elite colleges..."

I would agree completely.

But I would also say that some of the best physicans and human beings I have ever met had degrees from impressive elite colleges.

And while I have met impressive people who never graduated High School, I have also met some pretty worthless people who didn't graduate high school as well.

16 posted on 01/26/2018 7:11:20 AM PST by rlmorel (Leftists: American Liberty is the egg that requires breaking to make their Utopian omelette.)
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To: Academiadotorg
I may not be much help with your thesis on the Endless Minutiae of Irrelevant Crap, but I can build a house to keep your condescending degreed ass outta the weather.

Had it to do over, I'd go for engineering or not at all.
Can't say my (long ago) uni days were a total waste of time and money, but they both could surely have been better spent.

Contrary to the apparent belief of __% of snowflakes, getting one's hands dirty is NOT fatal.

17 posted on 01/26/2018 7:11:56 AM PST by tomkat
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To: budj

I remember an interview with one of those Rosie the Riveter women from WW II.

She actually felt sorry for the men, because they had been told their whole lives that their jobs required specialized training, certifications, apprenticeships, etc.

Said she learned otherwise. That when the job had to be done, someone could be trained to do it, and do it very well, rather quickly.


18 posted on 01/26/2018 7:12:55 AM PST by Buckeye McFrog
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To: Academiadotorg

Not obsolete as much as often a bad investment.


19 posted on 01/26/2018 7:13:49 AM PST by mewzilla
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To: mewzilla

Higher ed is mostly a huge Commie-Crat fraud.


20 posted on 01/26/2018 7:16:03 AM PST by CMailBag
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