The problem lies much more with our education system than with employers. Obviously if you are an employer who is is getting a bunch of resumes well logically you narrow things down. So of course they are going to hire preferentially those candidates with the degree, even if the coursework they did in college adds noting to their potential productivity on the job.
What should be done in higher education is for high schools to set up relationships with businesses and have those relationships play a role in higher education. What we have now is so many members of our society siting in classrooms doing coursework that will add nothing to their productivity in the workforce and on top of that procuring a lot of debt. That system is not good for our overall economy.
IN terms of learning things of practical value–it’s overrated. A better thing to learn (and IMHO, the reason for college) is how to acquire new knowledge and skills on your own. My current job did not exist when I was in college, but things I learned about in college were useful in this job. A lot of what you should learn in college, is IMHO, intellectual body building. You are building up your mind and how to use it. Just like football players do exercises that aren’t directly used on the field (like pushups, etc.), college students do mind exercises that aren’t directly used in their future job (for example, calculus, for most non-engineers).
Jobs, Gates and Zuckerberg all were in college, so they got much of the benefits of college. Not all people need four years of college to benefit from it.
While there are people without college degrees who do better than those with college degrees, statistically speaking the opposite is true. College educated people tend to be more employed (especially during recessions) than those without, and they make much more money in a lifetime.
No, they don’t get enough liberal arts education in middle and high school. If they did, colleges wouldn’t teach it. I’ve got a science degree (biology), but to get it, I had to get a liberal arts education. That means a well-rounded education in a variety of subject areas–also known as a classical education. It has helped me in the long run, and is why I can work effectively at a career that didn’t exist when I was in college. I had a college background in learning new things and in critical thinking.
I used the GI Bill. Don’t have a dime of student loans, and still have benefits left over. Taking a couple classes here and there since I get BAH for taking them, in addition to the kicker.
Depends on whether one is being taught how to think or what to think. I’m sure you will agree with that.
But you likely won’t agree that progressive liberalism does not need people who know how to think. It needs people who think what the narrative tells them to think. So they are taught what to think. Then after graduation they are ready to become activists… or “resistance”.
