Why college?

Chris Rock, on education:

     "Teachers do one half. Bullies do the other.  And learning how to deal with bullies is the half that you actually use as a grownup."

Most of life is OJT: On the Job Training.

I got value out of college. I studied history, government, economics, and literature. I enjoyed it immensely. So that was value. It also had value as a credential. A degree meant I had the minimum formal qualification for getting hired for some jobs and for getting postgraduate schooling. In my case, college had value as a draft deferment keeping me out of Vietnam. 

I learned things in my classes, and that is value. I encountered points of view different from my own. I widened my exposure. I got practice analyzing and comparing information and ideas and putting my observations down on paper.

Outside of class I got some experience and lessons about group living, alcohol, women, traveling alone, drugs, financial freedom and responsibility, jobs working for strangers, and good and bad bosses.

College worked for me. But I can think of other environments that might have been as rich a learning experience as college, although with a much different "curriculum." This would include the military, the Peace Corps, working on political campaigns, working as an assistant to a journalist or financial advisor or publisher, or selling something. As a learning experience, it probably would be best to avoid long stretches of tedious, repetitive work--although there are lessons to be learned from that, too. 

After I left school at age 22 my jobs included helping write a sociology textbook, organizing historical exhibits for the U.S. Bicentennial at Boston City Hall, working for a U.S. Representative, and organizing my campaign for County Commissioner, then serving as one. I also grew melons.  I was meeting the public, navigating relationships with bosses, co-workers and the public. For a decade I was doing the political science fieldwork that a student might read about in books. 

Somewhere on Route 66

I learned things from professors and I learned things from bosses. Good mentors and role models are very helpful and I am grateful to them. But there are alternate paths there, too. In my teen years there was a television show, Route 66, in which two young men traveled the country in a Corvette, getting odd jobs and getting involved in the lives of people in small-town America. They didn't have mentors. They learned by experience. I learned a lot traveling around America for six months, living in a tent packed in the back of my Ford Maverick.

An article of our national faith has been that higher education is the silver bullet for America's social problems. Maybe our country has oversold that idea. It doesn't end low-wage employment. In some cases, it means the barista has a B.A. and college debt. Republicans, in this era of Trump populism, have sharpened their attack on universities as hotbeds of snobbery, intolerance, and liberal brainwashing. In this political context it might be impossible for Democrats to question what value young adults get from four years of college education. It would look like a retreat or a concession. The battle lines are drawn.

Republican frame

Some jobs need a four-year preparation. College prepares a person for advanced professional study. Many people need a college education and get real value from it. I did. Still, if value to the young adult is the goal, maybe it is time for Democrats to think boldly. Well-funded national service programs might be more appropriate for many people. Formal apprenticeships and on-the-job training programs might be expanded. They might be as expensive as college, both for the taxpayer and the student, but if they create a better transition into adulthood than college then it is money and time well spent. Colleges have overbuilt their capacity. Many are struggling to find students. We cannot solve their fiscal problems by filling them with students from China paying full tuition. Student loans have taken up the slack from reduced taxpayer support. The burden of those loans is a social problem and the symptom of a greater one. College is a crushing cost for many families. It is luxury priced, but considered a necessity. The system is broken.

Democrats are looking at propping up the system by adding money to it. Republicans are making higher education a political enemy. Colleges will resist change. The professors and administrators are invested in the status quo. The campuses have sunk costs in their facilities. There is tradition and inertia. But the status quo is not sustainable. It needs to evolve and adapt. It would be good policy and politics for at least one of the two major political parties to put courage and ingenuity into adapting to the change that is taking place.

[Note: To get this blog by email every day go to https://petersage.substack.com. Subscribe. The blog is free and always will be.]