'You don't really want to go to college.' Ugh, what a depressed, non-optimistic outlook on life and society. IME far more people want to go to college and can't than people who are somehow compelled to go and don't want to. Why don't we let people decide for themselves what they want to do, let them dream their greatest dreams and highest ambitions, and give them the opportunity to succeed or fail, through hard work and imagination. That is the American Dream!
The solution, for a productive, optimistic society, is not to tell them not to. My strong belief is that the reactionary elite dominate public perception, and perception is reality. Very broadly speaking, they want to concentrate power in their hands, and reducing investment in human capital saves them immediate money (costing them the long-term benefits of an educated, empowered, free population) and creating an uneducated underclass. Notice that we are, effectively, talking about college for people who can't now afford it - the best predictor of college education is family wealth, and the rich kids will still go to college, regardless - these op-eds argue for eliminating college for everyone else.
One way they do it - one way they control perception, which becomes reality - is by framing the question. They talk about college as if it's job training, that is, it's preparation for people to assume their role serving the elites who own the corporations. 'We don't need so many of our employees to go to college', and right there your humanity, your value as a human being, is reduced to what you can do to them, and your possibilities, your horizon, your potential is reduced to serving them. (It's also economically short-sighted, somehow defining the current economy, it's current demand, as some end state. It's exceptionally conservative. The economy will transform or become moribund, and the next generation will transform it.)
People go to college because they want to learn, to grow, to open up vistas in their inner and outer worlds, to learn the best of what humanity has created and learn to create their own, to change the world, because they believe in themselves and their dreams. GREAT. Let's give them the opportunity to go there!
The solution, for a productive, optimistic society, is not to tell them not to. My strong belief is that the reactionary elite dominate public perception, and perception is reality. Very broadly speaking, they want to concentrate power in their hands, and reducing investment in human capital saves them immediate money (costing them the long-term benefits of an educated, empowered, free population) and creating an uneducated underclass. Notice that we are, effectively, talking about college for people who can't now afford it - the best predictor of college education is family wealth, and the rich kids will still go to college, regardless - these op-eds argue for eliminating college for everyone else.
One way they do it - one way they control perception, which becomes reality - is by framing the question. They talk about college as if it's job training, that is, it's preparation for people to assume their role serving the elites who own the corporations. 'We don't need so many of our employees to go to college', and right there your humanity, your value as a human being, is reduced to what you can do to them, and your possibilities, your horizon, your potential is reduced to serving them. (It's also economically short-sighted, somehow defining the current economy, it's current demand, as some end state. It's exceptionally conservative. The economy will transform or become moribund, and the next generation will transform it.)
People go to college because they want to learn, to grow, to open up vistas in their inner and outer worlds, to learn the best of what humanity has created and learn to create their own, to change the world, because they believe in themselves and their dreams. GREAT. Let's give them the opportunity to go there!