If you’re looking for my discussion of how “college education is a waste of time,” which was excerpted on page 24 of today’s Washington Examiner, you can find that discussion here in full. (On the subject of college education being a waste of time, I should know. I spent seven years in college, including three years at Harvard Law School, and later worked at the U.S. Department of Education). America doesn’t need more paper-pushers with fancy paper credentials. It needs more people with useful skills, many of which are best acquired on the job or through an apprenticeship, rather than at a liberal-arts college whose teachings are permeated by political correctness and psychobabble.
Another perverse result of government subsidies that encourage ever-increasing numbers of young people to attend college is that entry-level jobs that were once held by high-school dropouts are now held by people with college degrees or even master’s degrees.
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While I agree that college in its common form is a waste of time for a lot of people, it’s worth noting the qualifiers there: “in its common form” and “a lot of”.
Many colleges–yes, even the dreaded liberal arts variety–offer extraordinarily useful training. Good colleges teach students to write clearly, speak convincingly, socialize effectively, and think critically. Some people could learn all of this without the aid of a college setting, but most could not. Good colleges–even with the flaws prevalent at many of them–are still an efficient way to educate individuals in skills generally useful to most professions.
It is a rare field that needs only the skills one can objectively test. Skills-based exams can certainly be useful, but I would want to know much more than that when hiring a doctor, lawyer, accountant, or even an auto mechanic. If an individual graduated from a reputable college or university, that does tell me something.
Remember that many schools avoid the pitfalls of the stereotypical liberal arts education. Consider Claremont McKenna and Harvey Mudd (both of them out near Los Angeles), for example: two top liberal arts colleges that do a magnificent job training their students to be skilled and contributing members of society.
I would encourage Hans and Mr. Murray to direct attacks at the appropriately useless colleges out there.
Brad Walters,
CEI intern (summer 2007)
You are so right about this and it's painful to admit it, we live in ingrate times where educational efforts are not recompensed anymore. Yes, college is a waste of time and the educational quality is getting lower and lower as long as everybody can go to college if they have the right money. I know people who don't even know how to speak correctly and they attend fancy colleges… this is chaos for me. I am sorry that I wasted my time in college, I should have done something more constructive or even more simple I should have got a fake degree…
http://www.nd-center.com/
doesn’t need more paper-pushers with fancy paper credentials.
It needs more people with useful skills