Iris
Camille, your points about the ddgtivanaases of the college loan program are very well taken. But I think a good deal of the problem comes out of our having propagandized kids, their parents, and employers into thinking that if you don't have that sheepskin, the only thing you're good for is to mop the floor! Of course if more kids cram into our colleges, colleges will have more expenses and will raise their fees. In Europe, they only allow as many young people into their colleges as they think they'll have college-level jobs in future years. You don't see English BA's working as Starbuck's baristas (to take one example). And Europe (at least until the recent recession began to affect it) definitely had a functioning economy. If college is so vital, it should be made mandatory and financed out of taxes. But it isn't. There are thousands of decent, well-paying, respectable, satisfying jobs that can be learned in the military, through apprenticeships, or at vo-tech schools or junior colleges. For most of America's history, we did just fine by that route. It's important to remember that the WW2 vets, whose wonderful performance after they got college degrees through the GI Bill is at the root of our current college mania, were tried young men in their 20 s who'd had experiences no 17- or 18-year-old has. I think what we need to do is: (1) help each young person find his true gifts and p[censurado]ions LONG before he's 17, ideally by way of repeated aptitude tests, and [censurado]ist him in figuring out how to relate them to making a living; (2) encourage each youngster who goes to college to spend the first two years at a junior or community college, learning something useful and job-related, rather than spend them marking time at introductory (i.e., remedial) required courses at an expensive four-year school, then transfer later on if she wants to; (3) require employers to hire on the basis of true ability, not just grades and a diploma. Certainly kids who are bright and intellectually curious should have the opportunity to go to college. So should those who want to go into fields that require extensive specialized training law, medicine, teaching, architecture, social work, etc. But in fact many who go end up dropping out or flunking out (and wasting All That Money!) before they ever get their degrees, as they discover that college just isn't right for them or they for it. |