Stop! Don't Go To College!

Interesting article in the Washington Post, “Is college still worth it? Read this study,” by Michelle Singletary. In it, Singletary presents data which strongly suggests that higher ed is not worth your time these days, at least not as an investment. There’s simply too much debt involved, and the supposed income bump you get from having a degree is increasingly mythical.

I must confess, I don’t buy it entirely. But, she’s got a point on the debt problem, and let’s face it, college isn’t for everyone--even if it were a guaranteed money-maker. Frankly, there is a lot be said for alternatives to the traditional four-year degree, like community college, two-year programs, and, increasingly, trade schools.

That said, I still believe everyone would benefit from having at least a touch of the liberal arts. People gain something from reading novels and poetry, and knowing a bit of history and politics, however little that something may be valued by corporate American.

So, maybe, we could look at a middle path. Yes, encourage young people to explore trade schools and other alternatives to college, but, also, do away with the crippling debt involved with higher ed. Make college, in other words, affordable once more.

Maybe then students can have the best of worlds--a marketable skill, and a hint of Milton’s angels and the Greeks and Romans of Mary Beard.

Peakpx

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Please check out my new book, Padre: To The Island, a meditation on mortality, grief, and joy, based on the lives and deaths of two of the most amazing and unconventional people I ever met, my mother and father.

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Michael Jay Tucker is a writer and journalist who has published material on topics ranging from the Jazz Age to computers. (Among his small claims to fame is that he interviewed Steve Jobs just after that talented if complicated man got kicked out of Apple, and just before the company’s Board came begging him to come back.)



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