Does Higher Education Suck, and Does It Matter?

[DGS49]

https://archive.is/Acbd5

To the MAGA crowd, of which I am a charter member, today's American Higher Education is an overpriced mess where spoiled mainly-middle class kids can be coddled, told how wonderful they are, indoctrinated with Leftist nonsense, and graduate "With Honors," to prepare them for jobs at Starbucks, where they complain that the tips aren't enough to play for unaffordable urban rents.

That's an exaggeration, of course. Most kids actually choose Majors that at least theoretically prepare them for gainful employment, even if it is in the sports & entertainment field. But the "sticker price" (which only fools pay) is breathtaking, especially when one considers that it is paid in after-tax dollars. No wonder people are still paying off their student loans into their 50's.

From what I read, I think there is now a national realization that there is something inherently wrong with a society that subtly promotes the message that if you don't get a degree you are a "loser," especially when young adults who learn a trade are making far more than most recent grads. Indeed, those electricians who had no interest in college (and couldn't get in anyway) will probably have lifetime earnings that far exceed Humanities grads. And employers are realizing that the jobs that used to require a degree don't really require a degree, only literacy and a willingness to learn the job and do it with reasonable diligence.

I have posted here before my thoughts on adolescence. It is a relatively new concept in human history: young men (mainly) who are physically mature, yet not required to assume the responsibilities of adulthood. And we in the U.S. have allowed adolescence to extend well into people's 20's and beyond, whether the Yoots go to college or not.

I have three grandchildren who attend posh suburban public schools where "everyone" is expected to go to college and graduate, and their parents will be looking to me to either fund or subsidize this educational campaign so that they don't have student loans hanging over their heads when they graduate. Unfortunately, I look at these college bills in terms of cars. That fifty grand per year could buy a Tesla Model Y or a RAV4, and that's only for one year, one kid.

I have to say, I'm not so inclined.

How about you? Do you have kids who expect this to be provided for them? Will you do it?

And don't get me started on Spring Break.

 

[pknopp]

Society has never promoted the idea that if you don't get a degree you are a loser.

 

[Correll]

I do have a child, just graduated. We were prepared to support her in college, is she wanted, and if she changes her mind.

She knows that it is a finite amount.


She has choosen to go into a TRADE, and she has already enrolled and is more than halfway done. She is being a real go getter. Me and the wife are concered about a hospital switcheroo.

If she succeeds in the trades, we plan to use that money we have budgetted for her education, to helping her with a down payment on a house, when the time comes.

We have not told her this yet.

 

[there4eyeM]

If it were education, it would be good. That the question is asked is the answer.
At any rate, the past systems of education have not only committed suicide through malpractice, they have been superseded by technology. A. I. will tell you anything you want to know. "Teachers", partly because they no longer deserve the title, have been sidelined as redundant.
Thus, the question now is, "How can we motivate children to develop their minds and capacities in the construct that information availability has become?".

 

[there4eyeM]

Society has never promoted the idea that if you don't get a degree you are a loser.

Some of us have seen that attitude around them as they have navigated life.

 

[there4eyeM]

I do have a child, just graduated. We were prepared to support her in college, is she wanted, and if she changes her mind.

She knows that it is a finite amount.


She has choosen to go into a TRADE, and she has already enrolled and is more than halfway done. She is being a real go getter. Me and the wife are concered about a hospital switcheroo.

If she succeeds in the trades, we plan to use that money we have budgetted for her education, to helping her with a down payment on a house, when the time comes.

We have not told her this yet.

You grammar may not be perfect, but your actions are just and good.
Don't tell her.

 

[pknopp]

Some of us have seen that attitude around them as they have navigated life.

Because you had snobby people around you, it doesn't equate to society.

 

[there4eyeM]

Because you had snobby people around you, it doesn't equate to society.

Enough "snobby" people become a society.

 

[lg325]

50% of my class of 76s elite said it was a waste of time and money.

To me it comes down to what career you want to pursue. Not all career paths need a 4 year degree.

 

[Blaster]

50% of my class of 76s elite said it was a waste of time and money.

To me it comes down to what career you want to pursue. Not all career paths need a 4 year degree.

There is a growing trend of young folks are pursuing trade careers.

 

[Correll]

Because you had snobby people around you, it doesn't equate to society.

When those snobs are the ones hiring, it is a problem you have to deal with.