Actually, I seldom listen to Rush Limbaugh.
Earlier this week, however, he brought out an excellent point based in truth — and the truth, in this case, very much hurts.
He noticed the photo of a notebook displayed at Occupy Wall Street, written by a female college graduate complaining that her Classical Studies degree did not equate to an immediate good-paying job. Specifically, what was written is this:
I graduate college in seven months with a useless degree in Classical Studies. I have worked very hard and am on track to graduate with Latin. I am in a Greek organization with many volunteer hours under my belt. My job prospects, zero.”
Imagine that. She even has a website.
Let’s take it farther. Let’s do what I call the Logical Extension. Because this topic absolutely begs the Logical Extension.
Perhaps, dear vacuous student, your college or university just took massive advantage of yourself and/or your parents. Perhaps they saw you coming from a mile away, someone ill prepared to deal with the realities of our current budgetary times and who filled you with a faux sense of importance and immediacy.
Fostered initially, of course, by your Helicopter Parents.
Not only intimating but outwardly saying that your mere presence was akin to the Second Coming.
A 13-year-old writes a response to you:
My very own nephew would be a perfect example. He “studied” at numerous universities from San Diego to San Francisco, financed by my brother (not his father) so that he could “take” his degree in Philosophy. That and a few dollars equated to his being a barista and then the equivalent of a secretary. He’s not a bad kid. He’s just a product of today.
My guess? His degree tacked over $100,000, minimum. But I would never be told the amount. Because that would be, well, insensitive. And my brothers simply paid it. Or they have debt in their dotage.
My summary? Kids and parents: universities SEE YOU COMING. And they’ll FLEECE YOU to the best of their ability. Because they know that, mostly, each child comes attached to an application for funding. NOW CONTROLLED BY YOUR FEDERAL GOVERNMENT.
And, in an environment where Real Life is absolutely SCREAMING for auto mechanics, HVAC technicians, plasterers, drywallers, plumbers, electricians, welders, metallurgists, woodworkers, cabinet-makers, electrical engineers, scientists —
Kids expect their ridiculous and — frankly — USELESS– “Classical Studies” degree to open a door? Like a degree in “philosophy”?
In this environment, in this economy, what door precisely?
Further, when pressed to their “limits”, what does our current generation do?
It goes here:
Or it goes back home to Mommy and Daddy. Who will still take them because of guilt on various and sundry levels. But that’s a post for another time entirely.
How to stop the fleecing of Americans in terms of “upper education”?
Stop paying for it.
Once the funding dries out, once the easy government checks cease, American universities and colleges will be absolute scrambling for your dollars, at any rate.
STOP FUNDING COLLEGE TUITIONS.
Nothing more obvious than that.
Government-funded now. Too late.
Your $100K degree and $3 will get you a venti at Starbucks. And that’s cheap.
Reality. Deal with it.
BZ
The law of supply and demand is a bitch. A degree does show the ability to stick to and finish a task. Better prospects if you have a useful and needed task. say, a Bachelors of Science in Accounting.
I feel much better about AR and Sac State in the seventies with each passing day.
Thanks, homes!
= OCCUPY _____.
BZ
The guilty accomplices are the public schools that brainwash the fools into thinking a basket weaving degree from college will get them a 7 figure income. These fools who fall for it don’t seem to use their brains. Wise parents will not let their kids slack off in college.
I am wondering why the parents did not enforce some rules about their child’s choice of major.
I have often told my little boys that they will need to get college degrees to be successful, and list them jobs that will set them up for a good future.
Biology is one of them, computer technology, being a physician, attorney, teacher, etc.
If they want philosophy or something that will amount to a pile of beans, that could be their extra-curricular studies, but NOT their major.
Yeah, who needs to educate kids, they just get smart and become liberals, lol!
WSF: perhaps, if the degree sought actually made a work demand. But hell, you can get a degree in intramural underwater basketweaving if you look hard enough.
DM: no kidding! I still have dreams of Elton Long LOOMING over me, as I tried not to make eye contact because I knew he’d call on me to summarize a case! “FIRE and brimstone!”
MMSC: first, thanks kindly for stopping by and, further, for taking the time to comment! Please visit any time! But first they have to have parents who didn’t buy into the whole T-Ball/Esteem Paradigm.
Leticia: oh come on, please. Because that would be JUDGMENTAL! Actually DETERMINE their kid’s major? Perish the thought.
But the people who have the ability to make the greatest amount of money these days? Doctors, nurses, medical technicians and specialists. Plus, there will never NOT be a demand for the trades. EVERYONE will always need something repaired in their home or life.
LD: because, dude, after all, that “Classical Studies” degree will be so incredibly beneficial, and society is SO clamoring for someone so educated.
BZ
War story told back then by a teacher (not Elton) to the class: A young District of Columbia cop (self described as “a hundred and fifty pounds of twisted steel and sex appeal”) asks a man uriniating into the street from the sidewalk what he thinks he is doing. The man replies, “I’m trying to hit the center line.” The cop says now that the man is under arrest. the man replies, “You can’t arrest me, I am the freshman Congressman from California.”
I don’t see much demand for ‘classical studies’ degrees, but I see a LOT of demand for plumbers, electricians, etc…
I worked my ass off to get my degree from Texas A&M, College Station.Class of 1960, all Corps and men then.
I have recommended many high school grads to go down to the Armed Services recruiter and join up. Many get lots of money for college after serving.
By that time, they are mature enough to study and get a degree in something mutually beneficial.
The bigger problem that I see presently,, is the 35% or more drop-out from high school, of the blacks and hispanics from the big city schools like Dallas ISD.
Babies, welfare, drugs and thugs.
That’s the future of big city schools.
You will NOT find this in the small towns in the Texas rural schools.
Why??? answer: work ethic.
So, lock and load,,,,and be ready.