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Down With College
Pandemics and student debt don’t mix
I believe we are in time of great flux in terms of education, especially with the crisis of student debt in the Age of Covid. I would take this opportunity to carefully consider where to dedicate your education dollars and years, or those of a child.
Some of the most inspiring and successful people I know did not attend college. They went directly into their careers, including gunsmithing, fashion design, tech, and film directing. I believe the trades are a wonderful career, including plumbing, contracting, landscaping, and hairstyling. I often tell my two sons, “You can be an electrician who loves opera, can’t you?”
My only college courses of value were mathematics and a few composition and journalism classes. (I grew up with the absurd notion that I wasn’t “good at math.” In college I went from getting an “incomplete” in proficiency math to an A+ — because I had help from a roommate who was actually capable of teaching math.) Those were probably the only classes that imparted what I consider a lasting education. Otherwise, I learned my craft as a writer at the student newspaper, where I worked long hours.
I urge parents and kids to think flexibly about higher education. The costs are stratospheric and the payoff is questionable unless one is entering the professions…
