Thought control?

I can always tell when it is June, the weather warms up (usually), our day lilies bloom (a little late this year from all the rain) and school graduations seem to rule the day (last night our youngest had her pre-school graduation -- theceremony was mostly the children singing and eating cake, the kids gowns were their dads' white dress shirts backwards). So, of course, along with the ceremonies comes the annual article that college is a waste and our little snowflakes should enter the workforce right away so they can start contributing to increase our leaders worth.

Now the article itself, written by a college graduate of course, while making some valid points about some of the waste of college, has a whole lot of fail. The writer obviously wants to keep more surfs out of college because the uneducated are easier to control. Yes, not every job requires a college degree and there are plenty of skills that can be learned without it. And there are many people without a college degree that are able to think for themselves and learn on their own. I also agree that not every student is cut out for college and would do better to focus on where their talents lie (for example, a 4 year degree may not help a plumber, but a series of course related to his or her career in a 2 year school, such as business and writing so they have enough skills to control their fate might be better). However, the author's points missed out on many things.

The author uses two men as examples, Ernie, who went to work right out of school, and Bill who went to college. The author argues that at retirement Ernie will have more money because he will have been working longer, meaning he could invest longer, and not have the college loans to pay off that could delay Bill's investing start. However, the author glosses over many little troublesome facts.

Even during this recession, where more college grads are being laid off, high school graduates don't get promoted as fast as their college educated colleagues and usually suffer layoffs in greater numbers (For sake of argument, I'm going to exclude those not in the corporate world, such as smallbushiness people or other skilled workers). The lack of a college degree also hinders their ability to land another job for various reasons. High school graduates are typically paid lower wages, meaning they have less discretionary income to invest so Ernie may not be able to invest as the author suggested. Also, there is no law that says Bill must go away to a private school without a scholarship. Perhaps he stays at the public university and lives at the MommaPapaSister dorms and has less debt. Finally, there is more to life than money. Perhaps Bill takes a class that enriches his life in many ways that one would be hard pressed to put a dollar amount on.

I think philosophy was one of the best classes I ever took. It opened my mind to things I had not considered before and that has helped me more in life over the last 20 years then anything else I learned in college (and as to law school, it teaches you to think like a lawyer but you don't really learn to be a lawyer until you're out in the real world). That was the one college class that I think enabled me to learn how to learn. Perhaps I could have learned what I learned in that class on my own, but I suspect it would have been much later in life and not done me as much good as it did when I was 18 or 19. Though I'd be hard pressed to answer if someone asked me what business skills I learned in philosophy class (I can still remember the precise moment, when the professor was describing faith as how else can you believe someone walked on water 2,000 years ago), I feel that the ability to learn how to open my mind has paid dividends.

The college experience is simply the foundation for what a person will be. The college degree, for better or worse, has become the price of admission to the better jobs with, hopefully, evidence that your foundation is sound. And as to the sales clerk the author points to who still hasn't started college 18 months after he decided to go -- well, that clerk is still going to be 18 months older anyway by then anyway. If that clerk looks at the long term that 18 month wait is nothing. And if he or she is so eager to learn, there are plenty of online options, not to mention the good old public library, that the clerk can review to prepare for his or her formal education in the meantime.

Not everything you learn in college is for the furtherance of work. Much of the work I do now didn't even exist when I was in school and I learned the new skills as I needed to. Though my job title is the same, much of what I do today I wasn't doing even a decade ago. Sometimes there is a love of learning that is fulfilled in college that is not as easily fulfilled on your own. Perhaps you take a course that enables you to learn how history repeats yourself or heaven forbid, why the other side has a point in their argument that you never done on your own. Other times you learn something that opens your mind to new possibilities or allows you to see how you may be manipulated by those with an ulterior motive. Not all of that can be found by reading a book or searching the internet on your own.

While I agree that the current educational system that leaves graduates in heavy debt upon graduation leaves much to be desired, we live in a post-industrial world. Our greatest tool is the one in our head. Knowledge is power but, unless properly trained, may not live up to its potential. Properly focused knowledge is real power. A college degree is not worthless.