Is Formal Education Becoming Passe?
Posted on 05 May 2008 by Joe Holmes
I was running through the de.licio.us hotlist yesterday when I came upon an article entitled “Americas most overrated Product: the bachelors degree”. The article went on to opine that for many, a secondary education is a way to waste over eight (yes, eight) years of their life only to wind up with a mostly worthless piece of paper and a staggering amount of debt.
I would have dismissed the article out of hand had it not been written by Marty Nemko, an education consultant who has worked with the presidents of 15 universities. Mr. Nemko begins his piece with a statistic that absolutely floored me:
Among high-school students who graduated in the bottom 40 percent of their classes, and whose first institutions were four-year colleges, two-thirds had not earned diplomas eight and a half years later. That figure is from a study cited by Clifford Adelman, a former research analyst at the U.S. Department of Education and now a senior research associate at the Institute for Higher Education Policy.
How incredibly sad! Imagine studying and borrowing for nearly a decade without anything to show for it but wasted time and debt. Add to this the fact that holding a bachelors degree means less and less in today’s specialist market, and one begins to wonder whether or not all of the emphasis we put on formal secondary education is such a great idea. I am not suggesting that high school education is all that an individual will ever need in order to be well equipped for life.
To the contrary, I believe being knowledgeable in ones field will continue to become even more important than ever. It is the mode of education that I'm questioning. With more and more free learning material available online, including complete courses from such respected names as MIT and Stanford, the future of secondary education is in flux. The form that education will take in the future is uncertain, but as is the case with most change in this information age, it will likely make education more dynamic and accessible, and that will change the world.
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May 5th, 2008 at 9:21 am
This was very interesting. I have quite a few friends who took a few semesters at community college, found decent jobs while going to school and are still at their job and not school. Great blog.
May 5th, 2008 at 9:46 am
In one of the books I ghostwrote, I covered something called the “college gap” and what that is is HS kids are told by pushy schools and parents that they need a degree and so they concentrat on going college, but their grades and study habits aren’t college material. I don’t think enough emphasis has been put on other venues open to young people. Auto mechanics can start at $60K a year because there is a shortage. Have you called a plumber to your house lately? And law enforcement, while not a high paying job, has job security. I don’t think the “blue collar” jobs get the respect they deserve in our society.
May 5th, 2008 at 10:05 am
The value of college, in my mind, is not so much the career training as it is the cultural training. I think that a liberal arts degree allows us the opportunity to expose our minds and hearts to other cultures, styles of writing, music, philosophy, art, and history.
The downside of technical training schools is that they don’t help to form well-rounded people. They shape worker bees. It’s great that you could make $60k at 20 years old as a mechanic. But what happens 5, 10, 20 years down the road when each person’s life is potentially one big disappointment? If life revolves around making money, what do we DO with our money once we earn it? How do we spend it? How do we invest it? What do we enjoy? Are we pursuing things that enrich the quality of our lives?
These are questions that technical training schools do not discuss. A lack of liberal arts training promotes the basest of cultural norms, as lazy humanity will almost always seek out the lowest common denominator of entertainment and vice without the education/encouragement that college can provide.
There are exceptions to every rule, of course. But I think the person who skips college or even goes to college and doesn’t find a passion for some sort of learning and/or creative expression will turn out to be a person who finds it difficult to grow as a person because they’ve never been shown how.
May 5th, 2008 at 12:06 pm
I always find this particular topic (education) very interesting. I have spent nearly the past decade of my life working within the Information Technology marketplace. And of the many “findings” and “discoveries” I have acquired throughout my time in Corporate America, it’s this: Most of your better or “top” Information Technology professionals, aren’t degreed individuals. And the emphasis to find a degreed individual over one who is current with certifications is relatively low.
No, I can’t cite you a statistical study proving my results, but I can say for all my time and the places I have worked and the (great) people I have worked beside and worked for, in the hierarchical world of IT, only your high-level managerial staff are degreed or required within some HR by-law to have at least a four-year education. Of the people I do know that are degreed, most don’t have an IT background. They, like me and many others, stumbled upon this career field by chance, fate, destiny or quite honestly, bad luck. It is a career field where should you spend your time working through college, acquiring debts and the hopefulness of landing your first computer job when you graduate, only to discover later you are behind the times and out-dated. Guess what that means? Time to hit the local bookstore and start cramming for that certification exam, because despite the fact you graduated from your local elite university, the reality of the IT world is this: If you can’t do your job, right now, then you will be gone by the end of the week. And that’s a fact and one tough education (no pun intended).
More emphasis is put on certifications and continuous education programs and seminars within the IT field than on a four-year degree. What I have learned of the many people who did go to school is this: they wished they waited and spent 1% of their education dollars on seminars, boot-camps and certification books & training materials, because in the end–in the high-paced world of IT–the only thing that matters is this:
Can you do the job and can you get it done now??? And if you can get it done right now, will you be ready for what’s coming out next week?
Yes, there are careers where we should require a formal (specialized) education–such as those who would teach, those who work within the medical, legal field and other specialized areas–but to say someone will be smarter at the end of the grueling 4+ years of college, and more qualified than the next because of what they acquired along the way is insane!
I am a former US Marine and I can say this: Coming out of the Marine Corps at 22 years of age, having spent time around the world, following some of the greatest leaders within this country, learning teamwork, values, and responsibility, NOT TO MENTION, the parties and countless beer I drank, somehow the kid who just left his fraternity, had to wear a toga to get inducted and slammed down beers with a funnel (the same as we did) but yet spent his four-years after high school in a school system getting “learned” landed the better job than I did and qualified for greater benefits and far greater pay. And that guy comes to me on Mondays and says… Hey, what’s my password? I can’t remember it, although I type it, 5 days a week, 4 weeks a month, 12 months a year… but don’t get smart with me, because I’m an educated man!
Weird huh?
May 5th, 2008 at 8:50 pm
Hello all, thanks so much for the commments, Im not sure yet how to answer each comment seperately, so I will address you all here.
Brandy: yea, I know a lot of people like that too. Even worse are my friends who actually complete the degree, find out its worthless, and then go and get plant jobs. we definitely need to rethink how hard we push college on people.
Lisa: I know what you mean. While I strongly feel that any young person that has a strong desire to learn at an institution should be encouraged to go, I don’t feel that its necessarily the best for kid who wants to go to party or because they have nothing else to do. there are cheaper ways to party and cheaper ways to fill your time.
Daniel: I strongly agree with the premise of your argument, namely that young people need a liberal arts education in order to be exposed to important and enlightening idea. However, I also believe that there may be more cost efficient ways to expose some individuals to these ideas and concepts. I’m not saying that I have an excellent idea of what that new mode will be, but with the continuing convergence of information technologies and culture, an answer should present itself. all that being said, there will always be some place in society for the physical institution of secondary learning on some level.
Bobby: Thanks for your insight into the importance of formal education in the the Tech industry. you bring up an extremely important point. More and more of the jobs to be found in this country are now based in web design, programming, etc. The knowledge base of these type of jobs evolves not on the scale of years, but of months! It makes sense that as one of the fastest evolving industries, tech will be the first to cast aside an outmoded education model that takes years to complete. I also agree that there are some occupations that need a more traditional model. Im a medical student, and Im sure my patients will be glad that I didnt just take a month long crash course. even in medical school though, I feel that we could cut the fat and increase the real world hands on training. thats where the real learning takes place.
May 8th, 2008 at 2:07 pm
Joe:
I couldn’t have said it better myself! Its hard to take a stand on the topic of education. And if it isn’t hard enough already–I have children–little versions of me who rely on MY expertise to help guide and mold their futures!!! How painful!!!
I tell my kids, especially my oldest (13-Elizabeth) to really be open minded to what she wants to do with her life and each time she finds an interest, to be inquisitive enough to ask the people who work in the profession, how they got there. There may be short-cuts (for lack of a better word) that can help her realize a career dream, but save her time, headache and hassle of dealing with the confederacy of the dunces.
October 28th, 2008 at 12:14 pm
Certain parts of Nemko’s article are provocative. But take a look at the parts in which he offers no research or hard facts - a good deal of this piece reads like a blog rant, which in some ways it is. Also, ask yourself - is his article fair to higher ed? Many of us in higher ed are dedicated and hard working, and many colleges go to great lengths to help out struggling students. Nemko takes the worst case scenarios and makes it sound as if all education falls under these problems - which is not necessarily true. Many people get a great deal out of going to college - I’m one of them. Finally, take a look at Nemko’s webpage and his views of race, masculinity, feminism, the government, and a great many other issues. Even if you agree with many of his basic viewpoints, he is not a balanced commentator - he’s kind of a Rush Limbaugh of random social issues. And he is probably a little emotionally unbalanced himself. I’ve read a good many of his blog and website articles, and after that I decided I could not trust anything he said. Just some thoughts. J