Maggie's Farm

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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Thursday, September 6. 2012

College?

Jane Shaw: I’m dumbfounded. Two professors from UNC-Chapel Hill actually said it: Not everyone should go to college.


Charles Murray guesstimates that something between 1 in 10 and 1 in 30 can make the best use of Liberal Arts higher ed (ie, not as a credential but for the intellectual growth which is more difficult, but entirely possible - to do on one's own). For the rest, it's credential-buying, a rite of passage, an extension of high school, checking a social-advancement box, and/or delayed adulthood.


Mike Rowe in his letter to Mitt Romney touts the needed skills that yuppies don't want their kids to learn.

Posted by The Barrister in Education at 15:44 | Comment (1) | Trackbacks (0)

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As I've said before, I am a professor at a Texas community college, teaching History and Government (I refuse to think of politics as a science). I used to be a house painter and spent some time mowing yards and lumberjacking trees when I was a teenager.

I couldn't agree more with Mr. Rowe. Not everyone needs a college degree to be successful. And we certainly need more skilled professionals. If some of these students stopped trying to get a useless degree then maybe they could become competent mechanics, carpenters, electricians, etc. I sincerely hope they do because all of the mechanics, carpenters and electricians I trust are in their 50s and they all make well more than I do. If there were lots of 20something skilled professionals, I could pay $25 per hour for their labor instead of the $50-75 I pay now.

Teach them to use their hands.
#1 Dangerous Dean on 2012-09-06 16:41 (Reply)

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