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We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.

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Tuesday, April 5. 2011

The Great College Degree Scam

This gets right to the point I have been making for years: A Succinct Look at the ‘Great Degree Scam’.


Listen to Prof. Vedder's interview. I always enjoy Vedder, and he nails it.


A college degree is not an entitlement to a "good job" - whatever that is. People are confused about what college is. Is it a paper credential, job preparation, citizen-building, or simple life-enrichment? Certainly a Liberal Arts degree is the latter.


 

Posted by The Barrister in Education, Our Essays at 15:31 | Comments (5) | Trackbacks (0)

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If people are confused, it's b/c the education industry has pushed all of the above.

I've read interviews w/ university presidents, including Gee from Ohio St and one from Wright State (Vedder is also from Ohio) discussing how much more money people would make if they simply had a college degree. How the entire state's average salary would be higher if there were more college grads.

Logically false? Of course. Absurd? Absolutely. But, this is what people hear, and at some point it sounds like a contract offer, so yeah, they feel entitled to that higher salary.

But, it's all a scam. A scam that's gotten so bad that I'm wondering if we should do away w/ public education not only at the K-12 level, but at the university level too.
#1 DrTorch on 2011-04-05 16:44 (Reply)
Barrister, have you seen this? Salman Khan on TED

I watch that video and see all sorts of possibilities. Possibilities in addition to those he details.

I see being able to both learn what I want to know for personal enrichment and what I need to know to provide for a living. All without gate keepers like Colleges and Universities.

My current pet peeve, as I've made clear multiple times is accreditation. Think about accreditation of individual courses as opposed to institutions. I could take courses over the internet from around the world. I could build my own education and/or degree. I could take tests on various subjects to demonstrate my mastery of a topic.

Education could be provided at much lower cost.

We need to divorce education from a particular place and time. Dr. Torch is probably right, we should also stop subsidizing education. Every Maggie's Farm reader knosw that whatever we subsidize, we get too much of.

Khan's point about mastery in his system versus the typical school is very important.
#2 Mike (Link) on 2011-04-05 21:59 (Reply)
Dr Torch....university presidents "discussing how much more money people would make if they simply had a college degree"...indeed, higher education has largely been sold as being about neither learning-for-the-sake-of-learning nor the learning of specific skills really needed for a career...rather, it's all about the magical piece of paper, a credential which, like shares in a worthless bubble company, is valued for the circular reason that it is valued.

It must be very frustrating for decent professors to have to try & teach people attracted by this kind of marketing. If a car is sold in terms of "buy this car and attract hot babes," one shouldn't be surprised if the people showing up at the dealership don't want to hear about the clever valve mechanism and the innovative suspension. That's not what they're buying it for.
#3 david foster (Link) on 2011-04-05 22:41 (Reply)
a liberal arts degree isn't life-enrichment, it's communist propaganda which of course is the exact opposite of life-enrichment...
#4 J.T. Wenting on 2011-04-06 02:05 (Reply)
"Certainly a Liberal Arts degree is the latter."

A traditional Liberal Arts was life enriching. But the label now encompasses so many "disciplines," such as the -studies, that produce bitter, angry, small minded graduates who seem devoid of any capacity to life much less enriching it. Oh, the Humanities!
#5 JKB on 2011-04-06 12:04 (Reply)

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