Stupidest Idea So Far This Year

There has been talk, and some in the media have taken it seriously, that certain people would be better off not getting a college degree.

This is beyond ridiculous. No one is better off not getting a college degree.

Steve Jobs and Bill Gates didn’t get theirs. You are not Steve Jobs or Bill Gates.

You really don’t learn how to make a living. No, you learn how to use your mind. The living follows.

All that history and literature and stuff is irrelevant. To what? It’s the backbone of Western Civilization, the place where you live.

A college degree is no longer an economic advantage. College graduates make, on average, 30% more than high school graduates over their lifetimes. And every year of study beyond high school has a proportionate return. So yes, it’s an economic advantage. And did you notice that jobs requiring only a high school diploma are vanishing faster than a Himalayan Glacier?

I’ve been to college myself. I entered surly and unmotivated and emerged flush with the joy of learning. I remember little of the actual curriculum, but I haven’t forgotten the personal associations (the best still exist), the mental challenges, the expansion of perspective, and the prevailing sense of manifest destiny that drove my peers.

No matter what college you go to, there is no better way to figure out how to be in the world, where you might fit, what you might want to do. It’s no guarantee of success or fulfillment, but you get the options delivered to you, between dance parties and romantic encounters, which isn’t such a terrible thing to endure.

Write a comment

• Required fields are marked with *.

Name:
Email:
Subject:
Comment: *

Help prevent spam - enter security code above:
 

Lisa Cushman
Posts: 3

Higher education for all
Reply #1 on : Mon October 24, 2011, 11:59:27

---

At a time when our country is facing enormous challenges on almost every front to suggest that college is not a worthy goal for young adults (or even not-so-young adults) is beyond ridiculous. Steve Jobs may not have finished college but if you read his commencement speech to the graduates of Stanford, he unofficially attended every class Reed would allow him into. And he says that those classes informed much of what became Apple as we know it. So while he may not have attended college in a traditional way, he did indeed reap the benefits.