Ezra Klein has published a column entitled, "Why a college degree shouldn't be a commodity" in today's Wapo.
It's sad that an article like this even has to be written. A university is called a "university" because the whole purpose is universal knowledge. That someone would think a liberal arts degree is worthless is indicative of the economic brainwashing this country has undergone in the last few decades, where money is all that matters.
I've said it before and I'll say it over and over again - majors like business, journalism, and education should be taught in trade schools separate from a university or should be part of a degree in economics (an actual science) or perhaps psychology for "management" for business majors or the subject which one is writing about or teaching about for journalists and teachers. If you are employed to write about politics, you should have a degree in political science so you know what the hell you are writing about. If you're teaching math at any level, you should have a degree in some form of mathematics.
I wouldn't hire a person who has a "degree" from a for-profit "university." It says a lot about your character that you wouldn't go to a real college.
We've discarded the science of thinking for the pursuit of "things." It's why people don't care that they're destroying the planet, or that we've come to outlaw feeding the homeless and we call poor people "lazy" or we think that health care is a privilege or why religious nuttery is taking over our politics. It's the reason that ideology is triumphing over ideas, why our government is in gridlock and our nation divided. As we discard the humanities, we discard our humanity.
Study what you want in school, not what will make you the most money. The value of life is in how you experience it and the bonds you have with others, not the house you live in or the car that you drive.
It's sad that an article like this even has to be written. A university is called a "university" because the whole purpose is universal knowledge. That someone would think a liberal arts degree is worthless is indicative of the economic brainwashing this country has undergone in the last few decades, where money is all that matters.
I've said it before and I'll say it over and over again - majors like business, journalism, and education should be taught in trade schools separate from a university or should be part of a degree in economics (an actual science) or perhaps psychology for "management" for business majors or the subject which one is writing about or teaching about for journalists and teachers. If you are employed to write about politics, you should have a degree in political science so you know what the hell you are writing about. If you're teaching math at any level, you should have a degree in some form of mathematics.
I wouldn't hire a person who has a "degree" from a for-profit "university." It says a lot about your character that you wouldn't go to a real college.
We've discarded the science of thinking for the pursuit of "things." It's why people don't care that they're destroying the planet, or that we've come to outlaw feeding the homeless and we call poor people "lazy" or we think that health care is a privilege or why religious nuttery is taking over our politics. It's the reason that ideology is triumphing over ideas, why our government is in gridlock and our nation divided. As we discard the humanities, we discard our humanity.
Study what you want in school, not what will make you the most money. The value of life is in how you experience it and the bonds you have with others, not the house you live in or the car that you drive.
