If you want to succeed, you must go to college. Since the end of World War II, that has been considered conventional wisdom in our society. We are constantly bombarded with facts and figures supporting the idea that without a college diploma, a person will not be capable of living a financially satisfying life. So, one would assume if all that were true, a college education would be as important as any staple such as bread or milk. Higher education, as a necessity, has been infused into our marrow, melded into our subconscious, and branded into our epidermis. In other words, the absolute requirement for one to matriculate from an institution of higher learning is sheer propaganda. Oh certainly, it may be helpful. Four or more years of learning to do one’s laundry, managing one’s pocket money, and attempting to avoid a drunk and disorderly citation are valuable learning experiences that can pay dividends for a lifetime.
When I was teaching, my favorite students were those who in mid-life decided to pursue higher education. There were a number of reasons that they had not done so earlier such as an unplanned pregnancy, flunking out, military service, tired of school and bevy of other personal circumstances. They truly appreciated the classroom. Because of their life experience, they would challenge anything I said that tripped their “b.s.” alarms. Their work was timely and well done. The adult students would engage in vigorous debate as we examined issues that impacted mass media. They were older, wiser and more mature than their fellow students, and ……….they paid their own bills. They wanted a 3 credit-hour course to contain 3-credit hours or more of content and value. The bottom line is that the value of a formal education is directly related to the effort of the student. Personally, I have more than seven (7) years of college and university education, but my greatest learning was acquired on my own by reading and studying outside my academic field.
You might ask why I am discussing this subject when we have budget showdown underway and military conflicts in a number of areas around the globe. The cost of higher education slides into our current environment because we are focused on the costs for government, healthcare, energy and food. Over the past two decades college costs have been at the top of escalating outlays. In other words, the cost for higher education has increased much faster than for many other sectors of the economy. Why? Why should students and their parents pay so much for something that may be of questionable intrinsic value? Why should parents and students pay so dearly for four or more years of steady leftist indoctrination from instructors and professors who are refugees from the turmoil of the 1960’s?
Because of the upward spiral of college costs, many students face years of student loan debt repayment after graduation. In a small way this is a good thing. They learn rather quickly how oppressive debt can be, and maybe can translate their personal situation into a basic understanding of how deadly debt for the country can be if it becomes too unmanageably huge. In addition after the graduates have been out of school for a few years, they’ll begin to understand what real learning is about. They’ll use the tools they developed in college to equip themselves for real life. Self discipline is something that many college students develop in their forays through the halls of academe. It is extremely difficult to sit through the political and philosophical garbage spewed by many college teachers without suffering from a massive gag reflex.
Neal McCluskey wrote in a February, 2008, article that the primary accelerant for the rising costs of college was the myriad government programs for loans and grants to allow our children to advance their educations. All the programs have done is to provide a huge pot of money for schools to tap and has allowed them to escape true fiscal responsibility. In defense of the colleges and universities of America, they really need those funds in order to provide a higher level of pay for their U.S.-hating, aging hippie faculty. Think of it as a welfare program because a large number of those faculty members could not survive in the real world. They must have the nest of the academy to nourish them and protect them because they cannot fly on their own.
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