11 thoughts on “The College Degree”

1. Maybe, but in general you can’t get away with toga parties in high school.

   1. Ya, too insulting to Greek students.

2. And I think that high-school grads a hundred years ago probably knew a lot more than college grads today

   Probably.

   Of course, high school in 1914 was rather more exclusive than it is now.

   The continual parade, per Reynolds, of confusing the markers with the thing being marked, and thinking that if you proliferate the markers, the thing is also proliferated.

3. “high-school grads a hundred years ago probably knew a lot more than college grads today.”

   A century ago *eighth-grade* students probably knew more than college grads today.

   1. I don’t think an eighth-grade student of 100 years prior (to paraphrase one of Heinlein’s litanies) knew how to program a computer in at least three languages, bias two types of transistor, test an analog circuit, design an analog circuit, close a feedback loop, interpret the output of a spectrum analyser, lead a design team, take direction from a team leader, solve a differential equation, solve a partial differential equation, match an impedance, quantify a reactive power . . .

      My guys do.

      1. No, but I think he (or she) could learn in a year or three. I’m not sure that’s the case with the typical college grad.

4. Actually, I’d say that college admission has taken that role, which is why even “some college” attendance can make a difference in a job application.

   It used to be that a high school diploma was a guarantee of a reasonable level of literacy, numeracy, etc. Today that’s not the case. A high school grad can’t generally be assumed to be capable of even the simplest office job, or really any “professional” job.

   1. I’m not sure that’s true of a college grad any more, either.

5. In the 19th Century, a high-school graduate was expected to be able to read the Bible and other classics in Greek and Latin. Today, many high-school graduates can’t even read them in English.

   Most schools have stopped teaching history in favor of “social studies” (which is not simply the same subject by another name).

   Subjects like math and science are watered down because “everyone deserves a high-school diploma” (even if it’s a high-school diploma in name only).

   The standard credential for a schoolteacher was a two-year “normal school” degree. Today, teachers are required to have at least a four-year degree. That might be justifiable if the extra time was spent studying the subjects they will be teaching, but more often it’s devoted to “education theory.”

   Private schools used to provide a refuge from the worst abuses, but now they must adhere to national standards handed down from Washington, DC thanks to “No Child Left Behind,” the joint effort of George W. Bush and Ted Kennedy. (When a Bush and a Kennedy agree on something, you know it’s a really bad idea.)

6. Actually, I think that very much depends on the college and the degree. Certainly there is a vast population of college students graduating with various flavors of liberal arts degrees who went to college with no agenda simply because it has become the next step after high-school.

   I don’t think that is true of science and engineering students. I do, however, have to grant that engineering curriculums across the nation have become less rigorous, but that is a consequence of state mandates to reduce credit requirements, not an indictment of the quality of students.

   1. Actually, I think that very much depends on the college and the degree.

      Of course it does. The point is that simply having a degree per se is not a reliable gauge of ability.

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