Have you noticed that there seems to be a developing sub-text of questioning the value of post high school education in American society. This line of thought has been slithering about our culture for many years. It poked it's head up above the general din of the national conversation when Rick Santorum accused President Obama of elitism for pressing to broaden opportunities for post secondary education. But that was just a public exposure of this particular philosophy, not a causal event. I'm not interested in the political side of this issue today, so the Santorum-Obama dust up will have to wait, or may now be irrelevant since Santorum's fifteen minutes seems to be over. I am interested in talking about the underlying discussion.
Essentially, the question is, "Is a college degree worth the cost of tuition?" After all, in the current economic environment, unemployment is hovering over 8%, and college grads who are already unemployed face similar challenges to those faced by everyone else who is currently unemployed. Why pay anywhere from $20,000 to $50,000 a year to be unemployed? If we look inside those statistics we can get a more nuanced picture. Unemployment among recent college graduates is 4.1%. Among high school graduates the rate is 8.7%. Even college dropouts are doing better than high school graduates. Their unemployment rate is 7.7%. As for high school dropouts, the rate is 13.8%. Job prospects are significantly better for college grads.
The corollary question attached to the value of a degree is how does having or not having a degree impact pay levels? The average high school graduate is making $30,400 a year. The average college graduate is making $52,200 a year. Advanced degrees make a difference too. Masters degree holders are earning an average of $62,300 a year. Over a lifetime of work the effect is dramatic. High school grads will earn an average of $1.2 million. College grads will earn an average of $2.1 million. Acknowledging that these are all averages, and that there are enormous variations that comprise them, it seems clear to me that the question of the value of a college degree is incontestable.
But even that is not my point today. There are reasons why education is so prized that are not tangible. My belief is that education provides benefits that are valuable beyond their cost. Primary among these is that the process permits our culture to endure through generations. Education is not only about what we learn, but about how to learn. In elementary school we learn information of a basic nature. We are introduced to mathematics, which provides a context for analysis of what we see and we learn the concepts of mathematical manipulation that allow us to evaluate the quantitative nature of our world. The study of our language and, if we are fortunate, other languages provides means of communication with others. Languages have been shown to be important in understanding mathematical concepts and advanced mathematical concepts like music. Reading allows us to be exposed to the vast diversity of our existence. Science is the very essence of everything, and the introductory concepts to which we are exposed opens a door to an astounding array of explanations of what things are, how things happen and why things happen. History explains how we got here and reveals the patterns of behavior that have made societies what they are and helps us understand why they do what they do. Art hones analytical skills. It trains us to see how colors, textures, space and perspective inter react. Art is math, history and science all rolled into a single area of study that then invites us to "play" with those concepts. Above all, school teaches us to be social beings. One of my big complaints about home schooling is that there is little or no social component, and the occasional play date doesn't overcome that shortcoming. In sum, elementary education gives us information and teaches us to use that information as a problem solving tool.
Secondary education expands our knowledge base and refines our problem solving skills. We are trained to draw upon all our fields of study to find solutions to questions that arise in life, academic and non-academic.
Higher education is less about acquiring information for its own sake and more about applying it to address increasingly complex issues. This is where we are our most innovative. A lifetime of learning to study, learn, evaluate and predict lead to developing truly new approaches that enhance experiencing the world for everyone.
As education becomes reduced purely to test statistics, we lose the thing that has made the United States great: thinking outside the box. Sorry about the cliché. During the time when the test scores of Japanese students were cited as examples of the inferiority of the American education system, a Japanese customer told me that the reason the U.S. is so advanced is that we encourage students to question, while other nations reward rote learning. The higher the level of educational training, the more diverse the problem solving skill set becomes.
This is what I find disturbing. Exactly how do we expect to remain the driver of innovation and creativity, from the sciences to the arts, when we are doing everything we can to direct education toward being no more than vocational training? Vocational training is an important component of the overall spectrum of educational opportunity, but it cannot become its central tenet. As a nation we must stress the value of learning for its own sake so that the United States doesn't become a society of well trained drones. That, I fear, is what we face today.
Essentially, the question is, "Is a college degree worth the cost of tuition?" After all, in the current economic environment, unemployment is hovering over 8%, and college grads who are already unemployed face similar challenges to those faced by everyone else who is currently unemployed. Why pay anywhere from $20,000 to $50,000 a year to be unemployed? If we look inside those statistics we can get a more nuanced picture. Unemployment among recent college graduates is 4.1%. Among high school graduates the rate is 8.7%. Even college dropouts are doing better than high school graduates. Their unemployment rate is 7.7%. As for high school dropouts, the rate is 13.8%. Job prospects are significantly better for college grads.
The corollary question attached to the value of a degree is how does having or not having a degree impact pay levels? The average high school graduate is making $30,400 a year. The average college graduate is making $52,200 a year. Advanced degrees make a difference too. Masters degree holders are earning an average of $62,300 a year. Over a lifetime of work the effect is dramatic. High school grads will earn an average of $1.2 million. College grads will earn an average of $2.1 million. Acknowledging that these are all averages, and that there are enormous variations that comprise them, it seems clear to me that the question of the value of a college degree is incontestable.
But even that is not my point today. There are reasons why education is so prized that are not tangible. My belief is that education provides benefits that are valuable beyond their cost. Primary among these is that the process permits our culture to endure through generations. Education is not only about what we learn, but about how to learn. In elementary school we learn information of a basic nature. We are introduced to mathematics, which provides a context for analysis of what we see and we learn the concepts of mathematical manipulation that allow us to evaluate the quantitative nature of our world. The study of our language and, if we are fortunate, other languages provides means of communication with others. Languages have been shown to be important in understanding mathematical concepts and advanced mathematical concepts like music. Reading allows us to be exposed to the vast diversity of our existence. Science is the very essence of everything, and the introductory concepts to which we are exposed opens a door to an astounding array of explanations of what things are, how things happen and why things happen. History explains how we got here and reveals the patterns of behavior that have made societies what they are and helps us understand why they do what they do. Art hones analytical skills. It trains us to see how colors, textures, space and perspective inter react. Art is math, history and science all rolled into a single area of study that then invites us to "play" with those concepts. Above all, school teaches us to be social beings. One of my big complaints about home schooling is that there is little or no social component, and the occasional play date doesn't overcome that shortcoming. In sum, elementary education gives us information and teaches us to use that information as a problem solving tool.
Secondary education expands our knowledge base and refines our problem solving skills. We are trained to draw upon all our fields of study to find solutions to questions that arise in life, academic and non-academic.
Higher education is less about acquiring information for its own sake and more about applying it to address increasingly complex issues. This is where we are our most innovative. A lifetime of learning to study, learn, evaluate and predict lead to developing truly new approaches that enhance experiencing the world for everyone.
As education becomes reduced purely to test statistics, we lose the thing that has made the United States great: thinking outside the box. Sorry about the cliché. During the time when the test scores of Japanese students were cited as examples of the inferiority of the American education system, a Japanese customer told me that the reason the U.S. is so advanced is that we encourage students to question, while other nations reward rote learning. The higher the level of educational training, the more diverse the problem solving skill set becomes.
This is what I find disturbing. Exactly how do we expect to remain the driver of innovation and creativity, from the sciences to the arts, when we are doing everything we can to direct education toward being no more than vocational training? Vocational training is an important component of the overall spectrum of educational opportunity, but it cannot become its central tenet. As a nation we must stress the value of learning for its own sake so that the United States doesn't become a society of well trained drones. That, I fear, is what we face today.
right on !!!
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