My thoughts follow.
This was written by Mark L. Melcher and published in a for-fee newsletter Politics et Cetera, a publication from The Political Forum on 10/18/11. The complete article is not available free online for me to link to, or I would provide that to you.
"As for education, the wistful-leftist theory holds that the one benefit of all of this increased competition should be a surge in the value of education and skilled workers, who should see a significant rise in their incomes, along with those of the ultra-rich. The fact that that doesn't appear to be the case any longer is one of the chief gripes of the Occupy Wall Street crowd. They paid their dues. They got their degrees. And now they can't get jobs to pay back their loans. And they're grouchy about it.My husband and I wish our children to fulfill their dreams regarding learning and seeking an education (college or whatever else) but first and foremost as adults we want our sons to be prepared to be providers for themselves primarily and then secondarily, hopefully, to be the main breadwinner to provide for their future families. I hope someday my sons find love and enter a meaningful romantic relationship that results in marriage. I hope if they go on to have kids (they already talk about what they think life will be like as fathers) that they are able to support a wife who can raise their children (rather than paying strangers to). I hope my grandchildren get a good education (possibly being homeschooled) and that they have the option open to attend college (despite the crazy high tuition it will be in 30+ years).
Unforuntaly for them, the theory only applies if they manage actually to get degrees that are worth something. And for the most part, they did not and do not. Again, we have spent countless hours and countless cartidges of toner discussing the dissolution of the American education system in general and the higher education system in particular. And the fact of the matter is that today's college students generally fall into one of four categories. In the first category are the foreign stuents who constitute a shockingly large percentage of students pursuing the degrees necessary to compete globally in engineering and the hard sciences. As a Congressional Research Service study from last year noted:"
NSF data 2006: 36.2% doctorate degrees earned by foreign students in the sciences and 63.6% of doctorate degrees in engineering
(statistic paragraph quote shortened by me)
"The second category consists of smart American-born students who apply themselves in field like the hard-sciences or business and who thereby have a real chance at making a successful career. The third category is comprisoed of similarly smart and serious students in the liberal and creative arts, who value traditional education and civic virtue and who also stand a chance at success but who will have to work harder, to focus, and to be creative.
The final category, of course, is that which unfortunately includes a growing majority of the "college educated" today, i.e. those who either don't belong in college or dont' belong at four-year institutions or who are too stupid to know that the pabulum their leftist sociology professors spoon-feed them is nonsense that should be disregarded as such. These students earn degrees yet know nothing that is of value to society. As such, they are qualified to do nothing. They have no skills, no ability to think, and no knowledge. And they blame "the system". Consider, for example, the following tale from a Washington Examiner story on the Occupy movement.
"In last week's Zombie Parade the protesters, giddy with their cleverness, portrayed themselves as the living dead whose lives had been sucked from them by unnamed corporations.
One of the pre-Halloween costumers was asked why she had chosen to dress up like a zombie who looked like Marie Antoinette, the French queen guillotined by the revolutionaries of 1793. She replied that she had no idea of who Marie Antoinette was but just liked the look of the costume."
She didn't know who Marie Antoinette was. She thinks Joan of Arc was Noah's wife. She can't find the world on a globe. Whatever. And she thinks her student loans should be forgiven cuz "the man" is keepin' her down!
The way the "competition effect" has worked in real life is that those who, by fortune and their own hard work, received a degree that is equivalent to a degree that might have been awarded twenty, thirty, fifty years ago have, indeed, seen their value to employers and their incomes rise. The rest, whose degrees are as worthless as the paper on which they are printed, have not. But in stead of blaming their professors or their university presidents or themselves, for cripes sake, they blame Wall Street, because...well...that seems about right to them."
I have worked hard to homeschool my kids and to parent and raise them. I am a realist and I would not let my kids be duped into thinking that seeking just any old college degree will land them a job let alone a high-paying job. I am suspect of the new degrees being offered lately such as too many degrees in photography now that more kids have digital camera and like snapping photos, and the degrees in organic gardening or "sustainable agriculture", that's something a home gardener can do by autodidact studying and teaching through experience at home. Anyone who is curious about tending plants and thinking it is something they can earn money doing should first study what is happening to agriculture in this country. Most small farmers must have another paying day job to support the night and weekend farming they choose to do.
Cost is a consideration in seeking a college degree and given the economy and how life has turned out for our family (which did not turn out as we had planned) I honestly am unsure of where my kids will be able to afford to attend college. You can bet though that my husband and I will not let them throw over $200K away on a worthless degree that will not qualify them to do any kind of real work.
I want my sons to be independent adults who are able to provide for themselves. My husband told my kids that if they work hard in the four years of high school and four years of college (or maybe six if they go to graduate school) then they get to work a career that they hopefully love which will wind up being more exciting and fun for them for the next forty or fifty years of their life. If they slack in middle and high school they risk getting off on the wrong foot and landing in work that could be more physically demanding, back-breaking, or just a harder life trying to find work, and worrying about just getting by financially or even having trouble finding a job. A college degree does not guarantee a job but it is a requirement when seeking certain fields of employment (i.e. engineering that my older son wants to pursue).
They say teens don't know what career field they want to work in so it is hard to know a major to pick a college. They say statistics show that college kids change majors three times. Last year I heard an admissions staff worker at MIT say (I am paraphrasing) "it is normal to not know what they want to do, so we are a bit wary when we hear applicants declare that they definately know what field they want to work in because college should be a time of self-exploration". (Really? Even when seeking admission at one of the top engineering schools in the country that has rigorous academic prerequisites that took years to accummulate?)
What someone needs to tell the teens and college students is that college admission in any old degree is not an automatic ticket to easily find a job after graduation let alone a high income job. Period.
The teens and college students also need to take a look at their lifestyle and figure out if what they desire for themselves is even attainable with the choice of major and the job field they are considering. Just because they were raised in an upper middle class or wealthy household doesn't mean that if they like to bake at home so they attend culinary school that they will make the money they need to earn to sustain the lifestyle they grew up in.
My friend with a child in a private college is worried about the country club atmosphere there, knowing that most of the students will not find employment that can sustain that lifestyle: brand new high tech health club, multiple choices of restaurants to dine in, all the good food they can eat in a cafeteria, really nice dorms, wake up calls, and the "life is a party" mindset. She worries that being so pampered, compared to what she experienced in college in the 1980s with bad food and cramped old dorms and the only exercise what she got walking from class to class, was setting these kids up for a big let-down when real life hits them in the face and they realize that when they start working as a social worker or when they are looking for a job with an English or History degree that they may wind up unable to even pay to rent a small apartment in a crummy place. She said her college dorms were so bad that anything she was able to provide herself with her first job was a step up and was viewed as achieving success.
Students need to know something of job trends and of current employment statistics, such as the health care field is continuing to grow as the American population ages and lives longer, that we have too many lawyers in this country looking for work and the average income of an attorney is (just) $50K a year. Someone needs to tell them that despite those tempting sidebar Facebook ads, even the most passionate photographer remains an amateur, taking photos for a hobby in the hours when they are not working their day job. Not everyone who finds doodling fun can segue into being a comic book author and illustrator let alone making a full-time career out of penning superhero or manga tales.
I've been taking photos since I was ten years old and Photography 100 was one of my courses in my freshman year of college when I was 18 years old. I started writing my first fiction book when I was nine. I knew better than to major in photography or writing! I worked as a waitress, bus girl, and doing kitchen prep work to put myself through school. It was hard work, and humbling work! I did what I had to do to earn money to pay my tuition. I saw no one out there hiring photographers and realized that writers are self-employed and often write when their day job has ended.
I wound up working a real job in health care as I wanted to (needed to) financially support myself. However that was not without snags as the vocational school I wound up attending after I dropped out of college promised I'd have a starting wage that was more than double what anyone was being offered in our graduating class. Be mindful of marketing and sales ploys that schools use!
I didn't have the luxury to seek a college degree in some fluff major. That has not stopped me from learning on my own or from having an interesting life. So far my initial passions have failed to make me much real money and certainly I would have starved if I had thought that I would find income working a (non-self employed) job in photography or writing! I will not lie to my kids and tell them they can make a mint and have a cushy life easily by just getting some college degree, any old degree at any old college. However I don't blame anyone in society for my not being able to get rich quick doing one of my hobbies (let alone blaming Wall Street).
I also am suspect of so many of the new online degrees and wonder if a degree at one of the new for-profit community colleges like the one that runs a zillion TV ads is worth the paper it is printed on.
I understand and appreciate the importance of learning for learning's sake and about being culturally enlightened, of knowing about history and art and music. I want my kids to have strong skills in the Three R's. I want them to be able to communicate clearly both orally and in writing. I want them to have sharp reading skills so they can dissect and truly understand what is being said in text writing as sometimes you have to read between the lines or realize when someone is trying to dupe you with pursuasive writing (or to talk you into getting expensive degrees that don't teach a single valuable job skill).
However I am all too aware that there are schools of all types, vocational schools and colleges, who are willing to accept students and take their money. What students need to know is that a college degree doesn't guarantee them a job let alone a lifelong job or a high paying one.
Make your decisions carefully, students! And keep it real don't believe in pipe dreams!
Most importantly, realize that you are in control of your life and that you should bear the responsibility of your choices. Don't look for scapegoats.
1 comments:
Hear, hear!
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