Posts Tagged ‘College’
I recently responded to a remarkably bad article that appeared last week in the Washington Post called “Is College Overrated?” The article—inexplicably written by the paper’s dance critic—used a few anecdotes and the amazingly self-indulgent example of a wealthy entrepreneur deciding not to send his kids to college to launch a discussion about why college isn’t worth the time and money. As readers of this blog will already know, I’ve written a lot about this storyline that, somehow, continues to have legs. And my letter to the editor was, I admit, a bit overwrought, since I was so tired of responding yet again to the misguided assumptions and manipulated data in the article. It worked, however, as the Post decided to publish the article along with a few other very reasoned critiques. This is how media works, but every once in a while, “sanity” does return. (I’m marking on my calendar the Jon Stewart-sponsored Rally to Restore Sanity on October 30 in Washington, DC, by the way.)
While pleased to have gotten my arguments in print to counter what I do think is a pretty dangerous trend—discouraging kids from pursuing college—this argument (and all its over-coverage) seems so completely out of synch with what the country really needs from both higher education and those of us who write about it. College learning is, of course, more important than ever to succeed in today’s economy—and, God knows, we need better educated citizens to help our country work our way out of our current mess. And all the ink being spilled about the dire state of public education, the funding crisis in the states, etc., is certainly worth it. But the public also deserves to know more about what is going right with higher education. Read the rest of this entry »
So, Time Magazine published yet another article last week distracting everyone from the serious challenges facing the American educational system. With the alarmist headline, “Is a College Degree Worth Less?” the magazine distracted its readers more than it educated them. In truth, the article was far less alarmist than the headline indicated. After stating the obvious fact that more students are going to college and graduating with BA degrees—thereby increasing the “supply” of degree holders and, potentially, diluting the value of those degrees—the article notes that, “employers stress that a basic degree remains essential, carefully tiptoeing around the idea that its value has plummeted.”
Luckily for us, Georgetown University’s Center on Education and the Workforce continues to set the record straight on the continuing value of a college degree. Make no mistake about it, even as more and more students flock to college and even in the midst of a recession with high unemployment rates for everyone, “college is still the best option.” Read the rest of this entry »
