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by Total_Meltdown
5122 days ago
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(Disclaimer: I've only been to one school - a state university. Your results may vary.) I think we've forgotten that higher education is supposed to be an investment in a high-paying career (the return). As a current-student twenty-something, I can remember in high school when the rule was basically: people go to college, losers go to vocational schools, failures go straight to work. As absurd as it seems now, it's unfortunately what we were fed (though not in so many words). College was never an investment for us, it was just the next phase of school if you weren't so terribly below average that nobody would accept you. There is a lot of resentment, especially in the liberal arts and sciences type fields, toward higher education. Personally, if I was in charge of any hiring right now, I would look a lot more at practice and experience than at degrees and education. And I don't think I'm alone. |
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I believe you meant to say that it isn't supposed to be an investment in a high-paying career.
Education, like any other hobby, is an investment in yourself. The return is what you take away in joy from having participated in the activity. Like any hobby, the chances of finding financial rewards are greater by having done said hobby (think of how many have made fortunes by playing in a band, or playing sports, etc.), but the pursuit has always been about more than just money. Monetary returns are a nice bonus when one gets lucky, but it is still worth the cost and effort either way.
One year of post-secondary employment would be an interesting prerequisite for college, as a filter to weed out those who are only there because they believe it is the only path to employment. Unfortunately, it could, under certain circumstances, also keep people who are there for legitimate reasons away.