We have a sort of schizophrenic perspective on education that articles like that don't help. Do we want people to study what they are passionate about or is college meant to be a jobs training program? Is college an important part of citizenship from a learning the world perspective or is it merely an investment in the work force? And if it is both, then to what extent?

Kat,

since this is my area of expertise, I have a lot to say about this matter that will go on and on and bore you all to tears and you will block me from buffista-land.

Suffice it to say that four-year college degrees (liberal arts education) confer a lot of benefits, many of which are not job training. this has become less so as many degrees become more vocational in nature, but even the vocational degrees (e.g. engineering) aspire to something more than "make this widget"

Eater had a interesting thing about culinary school the other day that sort of speaks to art school in general, I think. One thing I thought was interesting was someone saying it depends on the kind of person you are -- if you can learn under fire with people yelling at you, maybe you should just work your way up in a restaurant, but that doesn't work for everyone.

Timelies all!

It's too warm to have a cat in my lap, but here I am.

I love people to geek out over their area of expertise.

I learned most of the skills I've made a living with from working on a top-rated student newspaper at a school with no journalism courses. I considered transferring to j-school, but I talked with several newspaper editors first, and they said they're rather have reporters who could understand issues rather than ones who had only learned how to plug facts into a story.

My English major and graduate work have given me high scores in those "100 books you should read" memes.

Good news, Suzi!

Work ended on a downer when a coworker vehemently claimed that we were not a horticultural institution, and so whether my potential new boss was qualified for that part of her job (as Director of Hort) was irrelevant.

I almost cried.

Thanks, I feel unvalued and obsolete. I'll go find another job and y'all can hire contracted landscrapers. Glad to see you've caved to the unofficial mission that is not board approved. I'd like to stand my grand while I'm still here.

Suffice it to say that four-year college degrees (liberal arts education) confer a lot of benefits, many of which are not job training. this has become less so as many degrees become more vocational in nature, but even the vocational degrees (e.g. engineering) aspire to something more than "make this widget"

I'd assume that's the case. I think most of my students would benefit from college not because it increases their job chances (though it certainly does, in looking at unemployment rates of those with 4 year degrees and those without), but because there is something ineffable that matters in being an educated person.

But I'm an educator so I fall in the school-is-good camp pretty unsurprisingly.

But 100% of my students will be, if they go to college, the first person who attends college at all from their family. Demographically the education rate of the parents of my students (at least those that are self reported to the District) is less significantly less than 10 years of formal schooling. So that means most finished 8th grade and were out. Those families see education as primarily something that should relate to making money.

I meant to add... the result of the familial pressure is that students feel compelled to major in something that is deemed big money than they hit, say, organic chem or Calc II and it all goes to shit.

I'm not saying don't get an education, though. I'm saying, for me, with kids to think about, it's a little late to spend a lot on a degree that doesn't have significant ROI. But there are also ways to be educated that won't leave you in crippling debt.

I just think not every kid who's going to college -- and I agree that most of them should, and that it's a valuable experience -- should come out with hundreds of thousands in debt because they went to Harvard, whether or not they can find a job better than Starbucks.

My students come out with some debt, but certainly not crippling. Often their loan totals are less than $2,000/year because they have so much other aid because their families are in the bottom 25% of wager earners in the US.

They also are always shocked when we read a study that says roughy 8% of students in their income bracket will graduate college before age 24. I don't know why, but I find that to be a startling and depressing statistic.