Posted on 06/22/2014 9:58:35 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
The more we insist everyone must attend college, the less colleges will offer what students need.
About a month ago, I came across a pair of letters online. The first, simply signed “Alumnus,” is an angry retort to his alma mater’s request for a donation. He is irritated that his degrees and the time and money spent on them have left him $40,000 in debt and unemployed for two years-plus after graduation.
The second, signed “A Dedicated Professor,” is an attempt to take Alumnus to task for his lack of understanding about the significance of a true education—something he accuses Alumnus of lacking despite his earned degrees. According to Dedicated Professor, an education is not about economic potential, but about far loftier concerns of intellectual edification and opening the human mind.
Though seemingly at odds, the two complaints complement each other, for each proceeds from the way our culture views a college education—a way that is no longer tenable. College has both an internal heritage of intellectual edification and an external reputation for upward economic mobility.
Dedicated Professor, however, repeatedly indicates that these two goals can often be at odds, contrasting “superficial gains” with “the meaning of being human” and disconnecting “success” from material production. The consequence of this tension is that the more we perceive college as the only appropriate one-size-fits-all destination for every American, the more colleges have to try to pursue both ideals, and the less they succeed at either. This is borne out by the fact that Alumnus now recognizes the blatant falsehood of promises of upward mobility and Dedicated Professor recognizes the severe disconnect between the achievement of a degree and the kind of education he extols.
(Excerpt) Read more at thefederalist.com ...
Many schools are fielding highly profitable semi-professional sports franchises and then sending significant amounts of money and support to Democrats and other liberal candidates.
The bigger question is, “What does our society value?”
today’s society values the trivial and the perverse and the unreal
There are plenty of jobs that do not require a full four year college degree. Many of these can be obtained through certification programs at the local junior college or other training programs. Unless the hard sciences of math, physics, chemistry, or engineering are your strong point, don’t consider college. The social science courses in college are expensive fluff that lead nowhere.
90% of the college industry exists to provide employment unemployable American hating leftists. If it weren’t for colleges what would people like Noam Chomsky and Bill Ayers be doing?
Oh, BS! These are complicated subjects to almost everyone--yourself excepted, of course--and cannot be readily understood by going to the library or "taking a few classes."
It seems that almost every FReeper sees higher education as job training. Yours therefore is a common and never-ending theme here.
I do not disagree that the current higher education establishment is dominated by leftist professors intent on indoctrinating students to their causes. But it did not have to be that way. Back in the mists of time one did not have a clue as to the political leanings of the professor and instead, got taught the subject matter. But that is indeed a different matter from the one at hand, i.e., can one become educated on his own? I don't think so.
You wouldn't understand the essence of higher education if it came up and slapped you in the face. You want job training and that only. Fine, set up institutes of engineering and other "technical studies" but don't call it higher education.
I actually have a dual undergraduate degree in English and philosophy, play three instruments and have won art contests.
But I took further training in order to actually make a living, as did several of my friends who pursued the same sorts of degrees.
Yes, one should read literature, learn about art and study a musical instrument, but do not expect to make much of a living with any of that, and do not pile up hundreds and thousands of dollars of debt in order to study them.
One of my points was that one cannot obtain what I think of as higher education by your means, i.e., going to the library and taking a few courses.
The other point I was trying to make is this: while, in general, “liberal arts” degrees (with many exceptions—lots of highly-paid people on Wall Street, I understand, have them) do not have much value in today’s job market, that does not argue against people wishing to go to college to get a true education—not job training. I, too, don’t think it’s a good idea to pile up thousands of dollars in debt to do that, though.
BTW, it’s truly an “academic matter” for me since I have long ago retired, having missed all this. Lucky me.
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