Townhall.com
Kurt Schlichter
March 22, 2018

“Higher education” is terrible.

Please note the quotation marks, you doofy liberals who will no doubt fill the comments with high-pitched typing about how “Conservatives hate knowing stuff.” What passes for “education” today is nothing of the sort, and what calls itself “academia” is really just a venal trade guild packed with mediocrities desperately trying to keep fooling people into forking over $60,000 a year – usually obtained via ruinous borrowing that ties a financial anchor around the defrauded grads’ necks for the rest of their lives.

Today, academia’s product is largely garbage – gender studies, twisted history, and pointless sociology spin-offs like communications and political science. Yeah, we need more students studying politics when they don’t even know that the Constitution says they can’t shut people up because their feelz has got the hurtz.

Sure, the STEM fields produce a few grads who are going to be more than mere cogs in the corporate machine like their marketing major pals, and some STEM research is useful, but don’t think STEM is immune from academia’s endemic idiocy. Why, the latest thing is how science is racist because…well, probably because these hacks say everything is racist and the weak-willed gutless wonders of America’s faculty are too scared to stand up and say, “Uh no, that’s stupid and it’s not a thing and stop it.”

What’s worse is that most professors are not so dumb as to actually believe the nonsense we hear coming off our college campuses – well, some of them are, but most aren’t. They know it’s poisonous baloney. They’re just too scared to stand up to the sophomore bully boys, bully girls, and bully non-binaries who scour the countryside for witches to burn. Academics are the Ivy League version of that Broward County sheriff’s deputy, knowing they should put themselves in harm’s way to protect their students from this ideological assault, but being too cowardly to do it.

Pathetic.

Contemporary college is a scam, and if you fork over your money blindly you’re the mark. A quarter million and what do you get? A piece of paper that memorializes your indoctrination plus cirrhosis of the liver.

Hillsdale College excepted, of course. And I wish I could except the service academies too, but when West Point is knowingly commissioning open commies it’s clear that it’s chosen not to meaningfully differentiate itself from the civilian four year resorts. Well, that’s not quite right. At least after you graduate from one of the academies you will get a job – hell, it doesn’t seem the Army can even summon up the cojones to can Comrade Lieutenant yet. But you can’t say that for the rest of academia. Here’s your Feminist Theater Theory degree; welcome to funemployment! I guess being a barista with a $150K student loan debt is a kind of a career.

“But Kurt, what if I want to nurture my mind and explore my options in an environment of scholastic dedication and intellectual curiosity?”

Then you should run away from most colleges. Open environments? If you want a sneak peek at the kind of nanny state regime the liberals dream of for all of America, check out your local college campus. An unaccountable ruling class of overpaid administrators controls every aspect of the proles’ lives – yeah, you students are the masses, and if you think they’re going to let you lose your chains you’ve been taking too many bong hits back in your dorm room. Justice? That comes pre-determined based on whatever ideological label they pin on you. Remember, evidence is a bourgeois conceit, while due process is racist and misogynist. Free speech? You’re free to say whatever the grim gargoyles of the Social Justice Stasi approve of, but remember – you can never be woke enough. You’ll always be wrong somehow, because it’s by declaring you a wrongthinker that they gain their power.

“But Kurt, I have a practical concern – I want to go to law school.”

Don’t go to law school. In fifteen years, robots will probably be doing most of what lawyers do today, and most of them will probably wear better suits. Getting a law degree in 2018 is like getting a phrenology degree in 1918.

So what do you do after high school? How about live? How about do something besides march into another soul-crushing conformity factory for four years? Get a job. Do something, anything besides rush to sit behind a desk for another half-decade. Join the Army – realistically, you have a pretty good chance that your platoon leader won’t be an America-hating Marxist or some virtue-signaling, girlfriendless geebo with a #VetsForGunReform bumpersticker on his Prius. Just do something real.

Then, once you’ve lived a little, and once you’ve learned enough about the world to resist the blithering nonsense you’ll be bombarded with on campus, maybe you can consider college. Maybe you’ve earned some dough, or earned the GI Bill, and you don’t have to wreck your financial future. Maybe you’ll have a little maturity, so your college days won’t just be a drunken haze, and you’ll be able to cut through the guff and use the opportunities that college offers to meet your needs instead of just stumbling through it. I came back from the Gulf War and went straight into law school, back when it wasn’t financial and intellectual hara kiri. I was ready, and I made it work for me. UC San Diego undergrad, not so much. Oh, I had some adventures, but I was four years older than most of my law school classmates and every single day I was prepared for class because that’s what I had learned to do leading soldiers. I was ready.

Luckily the college as booze cruise model is collapsing under the weight of its infinite expense and finite returns, as well as under pressure from technology that allows people who really want to learn to use the same machine you are reading this on to find pretty much any knowledge they seek. The academic monopoly is slowly breaking apart, and that’s good. So let’s hope this is the last generation that has to spend the rest of its life paying off a grift.

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That is a good read and spot on.

Abso-damn-lutely.

Experience a little life and gain some perspective on reality.

If you MUST continue schooling, look at trade schools.

This was the advise I gave my daughter when she graduated HS. They had her all ready to sign up for a 4 year college even though she had no idea what she wanted to do. The public school system makes all of the kids believe that you MUST get at minimum a bachelors degree. I talked to her and we decided it would be best for her to get out into the work force for a year or better to gain some perspective on what her future should look like.
She worked at several different entry level jobs over the next 18 months until she found her calling and we found a vocational school that would best prepare her for her career and she is able to pay it off before she graduates to boot.

For a lot of people it makes sense.

My son has been set on Medical School for nearly 4 years now and is finishing his senior year in H/S enrolled at the local university, meaning he’ll be only 3 credits short of being a sophomore when he walks onto his chosen college campus. So only 3 years of undergrad and with his record and tests, tuition is free.

We have been realists with our children - work hard, get a scholarship or three, and we’ll help out some - but we aren’t going into debt for an undergrad degree - and if they want a masters, they’ll be going into debt for it. So with free tuition to a school of his choice, its worth the effort to see how it pans out for him.

I also tell my kids make informed decisions - for example, if you want to be a ditch digger / artist / barista, understand the kind of life that will likely afford you - and it wont match their current standard of living, but that is ok as long as they understand it.

And we are certainly not paying for a 4 year degree party.

I went to college for the first time when I was 44 years old. Prior to that I worked construction as a concrete truck driver and a short stint refueling nuclear plants.
It would have been a waste for me to attend college after high school. At 44, I had more appreciation for the education I was receiving and also as a grown man was not afraid to stand up to professors that I disagreed with. Most professors gave me due courtesy due to my age.

Mainly what college did for me was to allow me to work longer than I would have been able to as construction destroyed my body. After getting a job with a municipal utility authority, I felt I had more in common with the field crews than I did with the administration staff. I would have to admit working in the engineering department that being on the job site wearing a white hard hat was a lot easier and cleaner, and not as tiring at the end of the day. I see both sides of the trades vs. management and what counts in the end is that you give your best and go home at the end of the day feeling like you did a good job.

quote:

for example, if you want to be a ditch digger

I don't know. I was a ditch digger's house the other day. He started out digging ditches by hand, and now he has about 50 employees who dig ditches with a wide variety of equipment.

I bet the house was worth a few million.

There are clearly some areas where a college degree is a must. Medicine obviously. Probably engineering and some other sciences.

That said, there's not much that you "learn" in college that you couldn't learn on the job or through some other form of training. Some of the dumbest people I know have college degrees. Some of the smartest people I have ever met have an 8th grade education.

When it comes to Honda vs. Subaru threads, those with Hondas claim they are the best option, while those with Subarus claim theirs are the best. No different when it comes to discussions about college degrees. Those who have them feel they are valuable. Those who have made it just fine without them don't feel that they are.

quote:

Originally posted by RHINOWSO:
For a lot of people it makes sense.

My son has been set on Medical School for nearly 4 years now and is finishing his senior year in H/S enrolled at the local university, meaning he’ll be only 3 credits short of being a sophomore when he walks onto his chosen college campus. So only 3 years of undergrad and with his record and tests, tuition is free.

We have been realists with our children - work hard, get a scholarship or three, and we’ll help out some - but we aren’t going into debt for an undergrad degree - and if they want a masters, they’ll be going into debt for it. So with free tuition to a school of his choice, its worth the effort to see how it pans out for him.

I also tell my kids make informed decisions - for example, if you want to be a ditch digger / artist / barista, understand the kind of life that will likely afford you - and it wont match their current standard of living, but that is ok as long as they understand it.

And we are certainly not paying for a 4 year degree party.

Sounds like my daughter that wants to be a doctor but is a junior. In the past, the school paid for her college credits, now I pay the majority of them. It's possible she will graduate high school and receive an Associates degree. She is wrapping up her final weeks as an EMT classes and should become one in April spending 20 hours a week in EMT school while maintain a 3.9 GPA. She knows we can't pay for college, so is doing what she can for scholarships, school clubs, ambulance squad etc...

quote:

Originally posted by a1abdj:

quote:

for example, if you want to be a ditch digger

I don't know. I was a ditch digger's house the other day. He started out digging ditches by hand, and now he has about 50 employees who dig ditches with a wide variety of equipment.

I bet the house was worth a few million.

Sure - and I never tell them it's a complete dead end, because there are always outliers like the ditch digger you mention.

But be honest, he's an outlier when you consider the number of ditch diggers.

Otherwise the vast majority of blue collar types wouldn't be complaining how they are broken when they hit 40 yet have no other career option, since they would have 50 people working for them and a baller house. But that simply isn't typical or normal.

Couldn't afford school. Tried a few jobs and learned a few trade skills. Never stop learning. I haven't. Paid off the house when I was 32.

It really depends on the child's ambition, and the degree. If a kid is really good at math and science and gets an engineering or computer science or medical degree, it is well worth it. If a kid does not know what he/she wants to do and pisses borrowed money away getting a degree not suited to a good paying job....not so much. I worked my way through college with no debt, and would not have my career without the degree I earned.

I think there are too many in college who don't belong there. I think they have diluted the value of having a degree. I think too many colleges/universities have become diploma mills. I think education has been supplanted by indoctrination. Now when someone tells me they have a degree in XYZ, I am unimpressed.

My son went through this exact exercise last year. Computer Science major now at University of New Hampshire. Lives at home - commutes 15 minutes to class. 12k year with small scholarship.

But - he had been accepted at Rensselaer and Northeastern and I was excited when he received 20K academic scholarships for both. Then I looked at the tuition and board - 70 to 72K per year? What - for a 4 year Computer Science degree? Ridiculous. And I applaud my son for having the maturity to realize the same thing. Both schools boast a great internship program. Big deal - my son already works 20 hours a week as a coder for a local engineering firm. And - he lives off campus so he isn't inundated with all the liberal drivel on campus.

The US still has some really good Engineering schools. Some of the best in the world.

Lawyers will not be replaced by robots.

STEM is the only reasonable undergrad for law school - along with accounting.

quote:

Originally posted by Graniteguy:
My son went through this exact exercise last year. Computer Science major now at University of New Hampshire. Lives at home - commutes 15 minutes to class. 12k year with small scholarship.

But - he had been accepted at Rensselaer and Northeastern and I was excited when he received 20K academic scholarships for both. Then I looked at the tuition and board - 70 to 72K per year? What - for a 4 year Computer Science degree? Ridiculous. And I applaud my son for having the maturity to realize the same thing. Both schools boast a great internship program. Big deal - my son already works 20 hours a week as a coder for a local engineering firm. And - he lives off campus so he isn't inundated with all the liberal drivel on campus.

I really liked Rensselaer when we visited colleges 6 years ago. He ended up at Stevens University and Graduated with honors with a degree in Computer Engineering. First job $70K. Tuition was $56K at the time and he received $36K in scholarship money. But his student load is $1500 a month. He got lucky and lives at my sisters house close to work. It works out well for both of them, she has someone to due things around the house that she can no longer do, and he gets free room and board, taking turns who cooks.

quote:

Originally posted by RHINOWSO:

quote:

Originally posted by a1abdj:

quote:

for example, if you want to be a ditch digger

I don't know. I was a ditch digger's house the other day. He started out digging ditches by hand, and now he has about 50 employees who dig ditches with a wide variety of equipment.

I bet the house was worth a few million.

Sure - and I never tell them it's a complete dead end, because there are always outliers like the ditch digger you mention.

But be honest, he's an outlier when you consider the number of ditch diggers.

Otherwise the vast majority of blue collar types wouldn't be complaining how they are broken when they hit 40 yet have no other career option, since they would have 50 people working for them and a baller house. But that simply isn't typical or normal.

My great grandfather was a ditch digger with a third grade education, turned his digging skills into a multi-million dollar construction company. His weakness was women, I'm not a millionaire now because of a gold digger, be wary of those.

It can be done, there's no doubt about that, here just in this small sample size, you got two stories in one page. The reality is those ditch diggers weren't "ditch diggers" they were the American dream. They were the people destined to be successful no matter the obstacles in front of them. My great grandfather would have likely succeeded no matter his career path as long as he had been lucky enough to get his foot in the door somewhere even if that was a Woolworth's stock room sweeper boy as his first job.

the real crime of higher education is the rise of the non-professional administrative and managerial class within them.

The Universities don't spend nearly as much as they should on attracting and building faculty, they spend more of their time and money on recruiting administrators.

An ARMY of vice-presidents, senior administrative assistants, deputy depart chair, Dean of Student Diversity, Assistant to the President of the Institute on so-forth, etc. along with salaries that are north of $85,000 a year.

The real money isn't in education, it is in education administration....and the geeks with master's degrees in admin. raking it in.

Prospective students and their families should know they aren't paying for a better education, they are just getting a bloated, bureaucratic bill for the new Vice-Dean of Student Non-academic achievement.

Trying to payoff student loan debt is a fun idea, but unless you are addressing the real reasons behind the costs, it is futile.

when I was in high school in 1976 I wanted to be an astrophysicist...

yeah, who wants to be an astrophysicist...

so I graduated, applied to University and got accepted into the undergrad physics program

I failed every single course in my first semester, which cut the courses I could take in the second semester by 50% since I didn't have the pre-req's for the other 50%

I failed those too

so after my tuition was paid...I had zip to show for it

got a job for two years, went to tech school in Los Angeles and became an avionics tech

I heartily agree - after high school, get a job and work. Learn what school didn't teach you.

So I'll be one of the few to say this guy is a complete moron, and simply wrong on so many levels.

quote:

academia’s product is largely garbage – gender studies, twisted history, and pointless sociology spin-offs like communications and political science.

I know, right? Because science, biology, math, physics, calculus, finance, medicine, and law just aren't taught anymore. Crazy.

"Robots will replace lawyers." I know, spot on. I can't wait to see a Mac or a PC (heck, why not an iPhone) placed in front of the United States Supreme Court to argue a case.

West Point, Air Force Academy, Naval Academy. Wastes. Those places take anyone (not seelctive at all), and don't teach them anything about warfare. But why stop there? We should probably just get rid of every single officer, and colonels, and generals too. They're just stupid, college-indoctrinated academics.

I agree that college has gotten way too expensive, and that some people are not designed for it. More power to them.

But his position is downright idiotic. Ditcching the whole system? Without engineers, there's no one to tell the ditch diggers where to dig. Without architects, there's no one to tell the bricklayers ho high to build it. Without doctors . . . well, I'll just leave that there.

Every person in that chain plays an important role, and to denigrate some of them for wanting to better themselves by getting a college degree is misguided, at best.