The Path of Education?
Recently listening to a Fresh Air podcast opened my ears and surprised the hell out of me!
It helps expedite, you know, accelerate or speed up the worry when ones' teen is fast approaching the 'forget about academics...I want to get a job and experience LIFE!" stage in maturity! At age 16 the ease of getting a G.E.D. (relative ease) and the power that comes from convincing ten near relatives that this new choice does not mean that our kid is going to be a continuation school kind of kid when it seems like only minutes ago she was going to be a brain surgeon is in full force and effect.
Meanwhile, a handful of connected teens proudly talk about and or display their university acceptance letters on Facebook and I sit and wonder...what use is a Bachelor of Science or Arts in our new age? And I list on toes and fingers all the friends who have a degree in x but work in z!
I personally have stood shoulder to shoulder with a majority of co -workers who possess Masters Degrees and more who earn about $10 an hour, just slightly above minimum wage in New Mexico. We are working, but it took from 2009 to 2012 to get back into the workforce, facing unemployment, downsizing and the pleasant well-meaning smiles of others who said, there is no shame in fast-food work. There isn't, but McDonalds would not hire me in NYC. Our move to the Southwest polka- dotted my resume with about five cool interesting although part time jobs after a confusing time personally with being a stay at home mom slash unemployed. Depression and personal "who am I really?" self discovery was only saved by a large eared yippy puppy that insisted I walk him six times a day so that I could not become a couch potato between picking up the kid and cleaning (well, sort of) the house. Without an apron on?
There IS a huge gap between the low-income, minority students and those tripped up by life who turn 39 and then decide after their divorce to go back to school. Cottom discusses that Universities are a one-stop diploma mill. Change.edu -- Rebooting for the new talent economy by Andrew S. Rosen also addresses this yin and yang idea. Who are we to think that if someone gets her four or now five years in, she will be prestigious and successful versus someone who knows what they want, and chooses either a for-profit hairdresser's school or a trade/skill?
"The real facts make it clear that private-sector colleges do a better job of educating students than many traditional institutions..." (p. 177). Soon Harvard will celebrate 400 years of it's premium status. " There will still be plenty of people who are eager to pay a premium for an education at Harvard and other elite institutions [ despite a pretty large number of kids who do go there as a minority for free! ] just as today just as there are plenty of people who are willing to pay a premium for a Mercedes, even though they could get to work and the shopping mall in a Ford or a Kia...People like what going to Harvard or owning a Mercedes says about them, and no one doubts the excellence that these brands represent".
"But under the hood, during the intervening quarter century, much will have changed..."
I wait to see what the future holds.
Are you a University snob or a Reality-Based hippy?
Recently listening to a Fresh Air podcast opened my ears and surprised the hell out of me!
It helps expedite, you know, accelerate or speed up the worry when ones' teen is fast approaching the 'forget about academics...I want to get a job and experience LIFE!" stage in maturity! At age 16 the ease of getting a G.E.D. (relative ease) and the power that comes from convincing ten near relatives that this new choice does not mean that our kid is going to be a continuation school kind of kid when it seems like only minutes ago she was going to be a brain surgeon is in full force and effect.
Meanwhile, a handful of connected teens proudly talk about and or display their university acceptance letters on Facebook and I sit and wonder...what use is a Bachelor of Science or Arts in our new age? And I list on toes and fingers all the friends who have a degree in x but work in z!
I personally have stood shoulder to shoulder with a majority of co -workers who possess Masters Degrees and more who earn about $10 an hour, just slightly above minimum wage in New Mexico. We are working, but it took from 2009 to 2012 to get back into the workforce, facing unemployment, downsizing and the pleasant well-meaning smiles of others who said, there is no shame in fast-food work. There isn't, but McDonalds would not hire me in NYC. Our move to the Southwest polka- dotted my resume with about five cool interesting although part time jobs after a confusing time personally with being a stay at home mom slash unemployed. Depression and personal "who am I really?" self discovery was only saved by a large eared yippy puppy that insisted I walk him six times a day so that I could not become a couch potato between picking up the kid and cleaning (well, sort of) the house. Without an apron on?
In Lower Ed: The Troubling Rise of For Profit College in the New Economy by Ms. Cottom made me think critically about the ups and downs of higher education and our labor system in new ways.
- "With great compassion and analytical rigor, Cottom questions the fundamental narrative of American education policy, that a postsecondary degree always guarantees a better life..”
—The New York Times Book Review
There IS a huge gap between the low-income, minority students and those tripped up by life who turn 39 and then decide after their divorce to go back to school. Cottom discusses that Universities are a one-stop diploma mill. Change.edu -- Rebooting for the new talent economy by Andrew S. Rosen also addresses this yin and yang idea. Who are we to think that if someone gets her four or now five years in, she will be prestigious and successful versus someone who knows what they want, and chooses either a for-profit hairdresser's school or a trade/skill?
"The real facts make it clear that private-sector colleges do a better job of educating students than many traditional institutions..." (p. 177). Soon Harvard will celebrate 400 years of it's premium status. " There will still be plenty of people who are eager to pay a premium for an education at Harvard and other elite institutions [ despite a pretty large number of kids who do go there as a minority for free! ] just as today just as there are plenty of people who are willing to pay a premium for a Mercedes, even though they could get to work and the shopping mall in a Ford or a Kia...People like what going to Harvard or owning a Mercedes says about them, and no one doubts the excellence that these brands represent".
"But under the hood, during the intervening quarter century, much will have changed..."
I wait to see what the future holds.
Are you a University snob or a Reality-Based hippy?
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