Rebecca Mead, in her latest comment piece, “Learning by Degrees” in the current issue of The New Yorker, writes,
The skip-college advocates’ contention—that, with the economic downturn, a college degree may not be the best investment—has its appeal. Given the high cost of attending college in the United States, the question of whether a student is getting his or her money’s worth tends to loom large with whoever is paying the tuition fees and the meal-plan bills. Even so, one needn’t necessarily be a liberal-arts graduate to regard as distinctly and speciously utilitarian the idea that higher education is, above all, a route to economic advancement. Unaddressed in that calculus is any question of what else an education might be for: to nurture critical thought; to expose individuals to the signal accomplishments of humankind; to develop in them an ability not just to listen actively but to respond intelligently.
All these are habits of mind that are useful for an engaged citizenry, and from which a letter carrier, no less than a college professor, might derive a sense of self-worth. For who’s to say in what direction a letter carrier’s thoughts might, or should, turn, regardless of the job’s demands? Consider Stephen Law, a professor of philosophy at the University of London, who started his working life delivering mail for the British postal service, began reading works of philosophy in his spare time, decided that he’d like to know more, and went on to study the discipline at City University, in London, and at Oxford University. (A philosophy graduate in the Class of 2010, by the way, stands to earn an average starting salary of forty thousand dollars a year, rising to a lifetime median of seventy-six thousand. Not exactly statistician money, but something to think about.) Indeed, if even a professionally oriented college degree is no longer a guarantee of easily found employment, an argument might be made in favor of a student’s pursuing an education that is less, rather than more, pragmatic. (More theology, less accounting.) That way, regardless of each graduate’s ultimate path, all might be qualified to be carriers of arts and letters, of which the nation can never have too many.
Read the entire piece here.
Of course, one nice think about home schooling is that you can start early nurturing critical thought, exposing the small individuals you love to the signal accomplishments of humankind; and developing that ability to respond intelligently. You also have the chance to teach them basic economics, that expenses should not exceed income, so that they don’t find themselves with an enormous, unpayable bill at the end of four years; and also marketing 101, that there are wonderful professors to be found at institutions without snazzy T-shirts.
Filed under: Art & Culture, Craftsmanship, Economics and Finance, Education, Ideas, Magazines & Journals, Raising Children |
Nice t-shirt, I wnt on to.
Camp Creek had a very thought provoking discussion about careers and the cost of university just recently – which inspired a huge run of comments. Did you see it? Brought up all kinds of ideas I hadn’t really stopped to consider.
Witch wan?
Haven’t done much blog reading of any sort so I’ve missed that completely. Will have to go take a look, preferably before 4H achievement day #2 and Saturday’s 6:30 AM spring bird count lol.
I think the key is to keep an open mind, and to teach your kids to keep an open mind and be flexible for their options. Don’t limit your thinking or yourself by thinking that it has to be the Ivy League or nothing, or that working with your hands is for troglodytes, and so on.
I couldn’t agree more with Mead’s piece.
Another carrier of arts and letters:
http://vogel5050.org/#about&page=9&image=8
(Herbert Vogel doesn’t have a college degree, but did take art history and studio art classes at NYU.)
Margaret, did you ever read this WaPo article on the Vogels just before their documentary came out,
And Dorothy is a retired librarian. Three cheers for librarians!
Of course, Charles Bukowski was a postal clerk too, and Wallace Stevens, who attended Harvard but never graduated, worked for an insurance company.