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We Generation Xers/Yers/Millennials had to learn that behavior from someone, and guess who controlled the culture and educational climate when we were children. Not to say it is a strictly generational trait, we humans tend to be self-centered because it is a survival mechanism. At least from my perspective.

   

If someone wants a functionally useless bozo degree that's up them. I'd neither ban the faculties or cut off loan funding for students pursuing them. That's not what I'm saying here. Anyone who graduated from these sorts of classes better not be expecting to come out into a $100K a year job or be living in a half-million dollar house five years afterwards. It doesn't work this way and it never will. The successful commerce, management, law, and medical school grads can expect in short-order to live a solid upper-middle class lifestyle. The vast majority of the ones who took other courses can't. Anyone who takes these classes should be made well aware of this fact because society and economics as a whole isn't going to change the basic rules of existence just to placate a ridiculous fantasy that the universities keep promulgating. If someone with a psych or LGBTOMGWTFBBQ degree wants to be the most well-educated clown working at the Orange Julius stand at the shopping mall because he literally can't get a job anywhere else with whatever the hell it is he chose to study then more power to him. It's not my job, or your job, or anyone else's job to bail them out afterwards from the consequences of their own decisions.

I heard that more than 60% of the university students in Quebec are still attending their classes and finishing off their exams. These are the kids that we should be paying attention to and giving our encouragement to, not the mouthy useless rabble of brats in the streets who are demanding a free ride through life.

   

One of the wealthiest people I personally knew was my father in law. He barely had an eighth grade education (that was interrupted by WW2) and was a glazier for his 35 working years before he retired.

He died in April 2011 and left behind a home that was paid off, around 300 pounds of silver that we've found so far, close to $100,000 in cash, and he left over $4,000,000 in the bank.

All without a high school education let alone a college degree.

He apprenticed as a glazier when he returned from Korea in 1952 and worked his way through journeyman to being one of two Master Glaziers in California when he retired. This was a man who could cut, not grind, a bevel into a piece of glass.

At retirement in 1987 he was earning around $100 an hour and he earned every single penny.

That said, my point is that the trades are not some sort of social stigma, but that one can make a damned fine living doing decent work. Anymore, it's the so-called professional classes that are suffering and it's the blue collar trades and professions (engineering is often considered a blue collar profession) that are still making consistent money.

Seriously, when times are tough no one needs a Doctor of Wymyn's Studies or a Master of Transgender Polemics. But you always need a plumber, an electrician, or etc.

The day of everyone 'needing' to go to college is over. Deal with it.

I know that sounds harsh but it needs to be said and then we need to get back to the business of building a future.

   

German logic, reason, organization, discipline, and diligence FTW!



Adopt the European system of guiding kids through high school towards the venues that they are best suited for and half of this ridiculous problem would disappear on it's own.

   

Would someone +1 this post for me?

   

I agree with what you say, however there will be no upcoming 'impasse'. The boomers will die, leaving their children in charge. Their children can 'man up' and see that is where they are headed and try to see that what is in it for them; is passing on a better society than when they found it to their children; or they can curl up in a ball, go to their happy place and hope it all goes away.

   

Agreed!

-J.

   

Done.

   

Thank you, Dr. C

   

That's just it - a BA in Philosophy (or whatever) is not a bozo degree. You're letting your bias blind you.

Do you have any idea where most law students come from? Bachelor of Arts degrees - be it Poli Sci, History, Psychology or yes, even Philosophy. I worked for the Faculty of Law (UofA) and it has a basic pre-req of a Bachelors degree - and close to half came from Arts (another large chunk came from Commerce). Same with med school - most students there come from a general science degree in Chemistry or Biology.

Degrees you might consider "bozo degrees" aren't necessarily such. They are just not an endpoint, but rather a midway point for most people.

I fully agree that it's not society's job to rescue people who take a BA/BSc and then have trouble finding a job - it's up to them to do what it takes to find a job in the field they want.

I used my BA to get into a Master's program and took half a dozen "skills" courses (like graphic design) on my own time (and dime) as well to get the job I wanted. Work is out there for people willing to put in the effort to continue learning.

One of the biggest problems is that many people still think like the Boomers did - I'll graduate from university and never step foot in a classroom again. In a knowledge economy like ours, most people need to constantly train and upgrade skills to take advantage of new techniques, technologies, etc. - which means committing to lifelong learning - not stopping at in your mid-20s after university.

   

vs The grasshopper generation. Or are you familiar with that term?

   

Well said.

   

I used to work with a guy who has seemingly become what is apparently called a 'professional student'. He's only a year or so younger than me, but has been in university for more than eight years. He has enormous student loan debt, mortgage from a newer condo, etc. I had asked him once why he kept going back for more degrees (last I talked to him, he was taking yet another course) when he should probably try to start paying down his debt. He said that if he keeps picking up accolades at school, he can find an even better job one after the other and pay his debts off faster.

I have noticed this trend these days with some of the younger generations. They are locked into the pattern of staying in school way too long, because it's the only thing they know, fearing the real world and thinking their debt will go away when they get that next degree and obtain a high-paying job.

If their 'happy place' is hiding between the books of university hoping to magically have financial stability when they eventually leave, they're doomed.

-J.

   

First, what do you mean by 'think critically'? I've been hearing this for ages and I never get a consistent answer from anyone as to what this means. I've also noticed over the years that 'critical thinking' is valued most amongst people who don't know the difference between a slotted or a Phillips head screwdriver.



And what do you mean about technical schools not teaching people how to communicate? Unlike liberal colleges words actually have meanings in trade schools and spelling is of grave importance given that when you're teaching someone to be an electrician he has to know there's no 'interpretation' or 'equally valid opinion' on what electrical notation means. It's also irrelevant how someone 'feels' about electrical notation.

220v is not 220MW which is also not 220amp. Period. If that hurts anyone's feelings then boo-hoo.

So don't tell me the trade schools don't teach people how to communicate when they absolutely do.

Now this thing about being a 'well rounded learner'?

I dealt with that BS at Northwestern. I wanted a degree in Network Technologies and when I first spoke to their admissions folks they told me that I needed to take a bunch of horseshit classes that had FA to do with my course of study. I did not care a whit about multicultural studies (still don't) and I did not care to study Literature nor Art and I was not interested in Phys.Ed. after years of morning PT.

To their credit they ended up giving me what I wanted and that was the core classes I needed for a BS degree (lol, yes, I know) absent two years of utterly unrelated classes.

This is part of why private trade schools have been hurting traditional universities is because the trade schools teach you what you need and send you on your way. Get in, get out, get a job and skip the indoctrination and brainwashing.

   

British technical schools teach communication.

For my HND I took, Electronics, Electrical Engineering, Math, Technical Writing, Technical Communication. Also one of my first outside projects was to study the life cycle of the common cockroach. This project was designed for the student to acquire skills in research.

One of my fellow students was "well rounded", he was 5' 8" every which way you looked at him.

   

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