There is a lot of debate these days on the cost and value of a college education. Maybe along with this debate, we ought to be rethinking how colleges are training students to compete in the global economy.
Two blogs I have read recently have highlighted college education. Glenn Reynolds at Instapundit.com has highlighted several articles about college costs. From reading his links, one could conclude that the cost of college has risen substantially because of two economic factors. First, because of the increased wealth of the world, and the increased realization that economic returns to a college educated person are better off, demand has increased. Increased demand without an increased supply of accredited colleges has increased costs. The second thing driving increased costs is the amount of federal and state subsidies in education that come in many different forms. These subsidies come from outright grants, student loans, research grants and other transfers. Subsidies drive up the price of education.
When perusing Chicagoboyz I noticed this. SUNY of Albany has decided to cut educational programs. They highlight the argument between two other bloggers, here (pro) and here (con), on the traditional humanities versus no humanities debate. This debate goes right to the theme of Allan Bloom‘s old book “The Closing of the American Mind”, and the core curriculum. The economic crisis has forced colleges to confront their economic excesses.
The increased cost of education is changing the way students view the world upon graduation. The values that our educational system teaches today leave our students unprepared for the competitive environment they will face upon graduation. Because of government subsidies and demand, the cost to get to the end cripples them with debt. This debt causes them to alter their decision patterns. They look for jobs with security, rather than jobs that can increase their standard of living substantially by assuming some well calculated risk.
Some people say that we are just entering the competition of the global economy, but they are wrong. It’s always been there. Nations with large populations of people are emerging and people are noticing it more. Some education reformers like to say that kids in US schools aren’t competing with the person at the next desk, but instead are competing with a kid in India or China. They miss the broader point. We have always competed since the dawn of our country. It’s just that the nature of competition changes over time.
How do we educate American society to win in the future?
Historically, and we are talking ancient 1800-1960′s history here, if a person went to college it meant that they learned a certain “core curriculum” of humanities, math and science. This core was a “classic” education. Learning it made one more educated than the masses that simply learned basic high school subjects. Also, this sort of education prepared one for professional graduate school; law, business, medicine or engineering. After graduate school, you went out and made the big bucks as a productive member of a capitalist society. Of course, that notion is dead. It began to change in the 1960′s, accelerated in the 70′s and 80′s. Bloom advocated for a collegiate education that was heavy on instruction in the formation of classical Western Civilization.
The way to educate Americans is to enable them to be hyper entrepreneurial. Because our standard of living is so much higher than the developing world, we can’t redefine our standard of living down. Instead, we need to educate people to think out of the box. Find holes in the global economy that they can exploit and build a business out of. When the holes close, they need to find another one. There are always holes to find as the global economy always changes.
Some of these holes will turn into massive companies employing thousands. Some will be nice lifestyle businesses that will earn the person a nice standard of living. (italics added) Every person attending college today should engage in a core curriculum and then specialize into their major, even engineering and science, and especially business.
If we are going to recreate a great entrepreneurial society, we must enable our kids to take business risks. A well taught humanities curriculum can instruct them on how to find ways to take those risks. Taking those risks and being successful will continue to build our society.
Today, the American educational system is creating too many one dimensional thinkers. They are not taught to critically think, but instead are “conditioned” to think in a certain way. The values of the American system are screwed up as well. Kids are forced to do “community service”. Instead, they should be taught how to brainstorm to ideas for a business. Time spent in Junior Achievement clubs would be a lot better than trucking kids off to work at a soup kitchen.
Goes back to the old Chinese adage, Give a man a fish, he eats for a day. Teach a man to fish and he fishes for a lifetime. Entrepreneurs creating jobs are a lot more valuable to that soup kitchen guy than a bowl of soup.
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