The Black Mark of a Bachelor’s Degree

You certainly got that right about the no college degree thing. Unless you are in a specialized field (engineering, medicine), there is often no need for a degree. In my business all of the top line supervisors/managers worked their way from the bottom up. Some don't even have GEDs. However, they know the work inside and out and are 1000 times better, and more reliable than, any college graduate! They don't put up with all of the PC BS. They are friendly, approachable but expect you to do your job, no excuses.

this garbage started with the vietnam war ..Political profs admitted & kept just about every male student they could ..”to avoid the draft & service “ All good lil liberals who also escaped by teaching /preaching.They created schifft courses to elevate grades .. Then gave us glo-blo warming to open new vistas of pseudo science/activism ..and keep enrollment high $$$$$ cui bono ? edumacating drones for what ?

Esolen has had a clear view of this problem for years, and each year the problem becomes more obvious. He has an excellent video series on Dante, by the way, which you would be hard pressed to find in most colleges. I create materials and courses for homeschoolers, and they are more rigorous than what now passes for college level. They are also not constrained by political correctness and wokeism. They don't have to track a syllabus written by the state. They don't have to have all references to religion expunged. They can even notice that Western civilization has produced works of unparalleled beauty and value. There are many others like me working to restore real education in the only place it can flourish--outside the academy and outside the public schools.

Higher education is an industry...that's all one needs to know. It takes your money, inconveniences its customers with classes and exams, and eventually - so long as your tuition and fees are up-to-date, awards a diploma. Whether you know anything, or know anything of value, is not their concern. It's ticket punching at its finest. Starbucks is hiring...

Mike Rowe is such a solid voice for this realignment of thinking as to the pursuit of a future career. He learned by doing, and doesn't just talk, talk, talk. He elevates the notion of dirty, hard work paying off and being satisfying. He's gone even further with his scholarship program and such. Would that his voice could be elevated and amplified. He is the perfect messenger and, I believe, prophet.

When I was an executive at a major US bank, we avoided the “top tier” colleges in favor of middle range schools that attracted hard-working strivers. A wise policy.

This may be the “must read” of the day. I went to college in the early 70’s at a Big Ten school, on the GI Bill after 4 years of military service. The inmates weren’t yet in charge of the asylum. I started at the university’s aviation school, which trained pilots and mechanics. I later transferred to the business school. When I left 4 years later I had not only a degree in finance, but a commercial pilot’s license with instrument and multiengine ratings and an instrument flight instructor license. It prepared me for two careers, one in flying and the other in the insurance industry. Today, that would be impossible. In the early 2000’s the university, on the advice of a panel of professors (who mostly taught sociology, education and women’s studies) abolished the aviation school because it was “not central to the mission of the university.” The people in the aviation program graduated and went to work, and the university no longer valued that. I don’t give my alma mater the time of day anymore. I don’t respond to entreaties from the alumni association. They are now as bad as, or worse than, every other university in America - politically correct, “woke”, and run by left-wing morons.

Unless you're in STEM area, college is a lot of money thrown down the toilet. It's the incubator for marxism.

fta: "I imagine an introductory course, Weather-Vane 101, wherein students stand with their arms extended, and are taught to swing with the prevailing political wind (as determined by their betters, naturally). People like that will fit quite nicely in the great folds of managerial fat that we find in both the public and the private sphere. The wonder of it, too, is that the weather vanes will at the same time boast of themselves as leaders: as the rooster who thinks that his crowing makes the sun rise. It is fortunate for us that we have so little sense of the ridiculous. Otherwise our economy might collapse overnight, and our governors might leave their stations, near to cardiac arrest with laughter, sputtering, “Well of course we don’t know what we’re doing! What did you think?”" Bravo. Excellent dissection of the problem. I too hope the present system dies a quick death very soon.

In defense of a Bachelor's Degree, I graduated with a Bachelor of Science from San Jose State University with honors (1990). I escaped brain washing by staying over in the Business Dept. side of the University. I dipped my toes in over at the Journalism side with my minor, but saw the bias and didn't like it. My first Marketing Professor was one of the first to see the birth of Silicon Valley and its inception. It was an exciting time to interview for Marketing classes some of the Start Up companies for our team term papers. Still can remember Apple executives coming to campus and talking about the future of computers. This was the beginning of computers talking to computers. SJSU was part of the beginning of Silicon Valley (formerly known as Santa Clara County) and I saw the birth.

When I saw the photos of the gowns and finery, all I could think was Halloween is celebrated earlier every year by these goofballs.

I apologize staff and posters. I posted on wrong article. eek.