The above meme, while it highlights the salient point that you don’t need a college education to make a great living, also conveys the opposite extreme; the notion that you NEED a college degree to be successful. I posit that both notions represent flawed thinking because a larger point is missed…
Education and vocation are not remotely the same thing.
College is NOT, nor has it ever been, about job training. College is about gaining an education which should lead to a broader perspective on the world.
College is expensive in this country because higher education is supposed to be a privilege to be earned. Work hard in secondary school and you get a free or almost free college education. Serve in the military or have a talent, ditto. If you are lucky enough to have been born into a wealthy family, you get to waste your family’s money until you either dropout or grow up, but college is not job training.
One does not need a degree to be educated, but credentials are employment discriminators. Degrees, diplomas, and certifications are what employers look at to determine qualifications. You are better off having something that proves you are employable than not.
At the end of day, whether you get an education in college or a certified skill in vocational school, or even in the “school of hard knocks”, you need an education or a vocation. It’s the new currency of the 21st century.
Let’s stop casting aspersions on people for having a college degree or for not having a college degree and put things in perspective.
-The Rational Ram
The Rational Ram 