Maggie's Farm

From the Pope Center's Studying or Partying? The Five-Year Party identifies a problem with college, but gets a barely passing grade:

The reward for students being good clients and paying ever-increasing amounts of tuition dollars and other fees is a diploma.  However, because they have not received a real education, their diplomas are almost worthless, and they cannot obtain decent jobs with them. Although most schools imply that graduating from them will put the student on the path to a good career, the truth is that many have barely advanced past their high school knowledge and will find employment in jobs like theater usher and coffee barista.

Readers know that I am in favor of raising the bar for HS and college graduation. Over time, these things mean less and less. A HS degree should mean, at minimum, that you can write a personal essay, a researched essay, know what PV=nRT means,  and perform Trigonometry. A college degree should mean, at minimum, that you can write a scholarly paper, do Calc, and speak intelligently about Kierkegaard and the Bible.