The False Promise of Higher Education
Universities require little of students, and in turn, students ask little of universities. The fact that the degree could be acquired with minimal effort or stress is not seen as a particularly vexing problem for students who are able to glide through four or five years with few demands being placed on their abilities or their work ethic. As long as they acquire the desirable credential, they are more than satisfied. Despite all the problems associated with education, that credential still works as it was designed. Whether is actually signify any skill or body of knowledge, it confers legitimacy and prestige, and is still accepted by society and employers as a sign of accomplishment. Its absence still carry a stigma and considerable economic penalty.
Educational institutions drop criteria and quality while raising budgets and taxes. There is much evidence about the dumbing down of the curriculum so everyone can pass. Many students graduate college today without being able to write well enough to satisfy their employers, reason clearly, or perform competently in analyzing complex, nontechnical problems.
Picture all the overqualified graduates you’ve encountered waiting tables and working in gas stations. You’ve seen a world of academic oddities with your own eyes.
Many students graduate, indebted sheepskin in hand, only to find themselves in a job that requires them to ask, “Would you like to try our pumpkin spice latte today?” as so expressive and sympathetic Charles Sykes put it in "Fail U." More than half of college graduates under twenty-five are unemployed or underemployed. A survey by Gallup found that only one third of college graduates agree that their degree was worth the cost.
There is a growing education bubble, and at some point it’s going to pop. The general image is one of a broken ecosystem.
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Share this article in good faith. So others can read, learn, and grow. I think books are trusted, inspiring friends. Sometimes, these friends mark a before and after in our lives. I think we shouldn’t let go of friends who make us a better person.
Share, so others can grow. Readable yours, C. Pitner, The Morning After
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Credit:
- “Fail U., The False Promise of Higher Education,” by Charles Sykes, St. Martin's Press, Aug. 2016, on Amazon.
- “Fail U.” is book 11-of-200 of my Don Quixotesque crusade, ‘Read Something That Means Something.’
- “Read Something That Means Something” is The New Yorker.
- “Fail U.” is cited in Chapter 17, “Education, Interrupted,” of “The Morning After.”
- Background photo by Raw Pixel.
Share, so others can grow.