A Reader Writes About College As A Four Year Social Event
08/18/2008
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08/17/08 - A California Educator Says Forget Algebra—No One Can Do Long Division!

Re: James Fulford's blog Charles Murray On The Uselessness Of A College Degree

A Reader writes from Columbus, Ohio

A college education is no more about "education" than college football is about amateurism. A college education is a four year social event where eligible students can find their spouse and enroll in a giant fraternity/sorority known as a college degree. Best demonstrated in the book Beer and Circus education is a mere sidelight in the overall activity of a college education. It allows children another four years to mature into adults and to make friends that will last a lifetime. Education has not been a focus of a college education since the roaring 60's where hippies and freaks redefined what student life is all about.

Thanks to the rising wealth of the country every parent's desire is for their children to become members in the social elite that have a college education. Seen as a purely financial endeavor a college education is barely worth the time, but seen as joining a prestigious social group it becomes worth the price of tuition room and board.

Maybe 10 percent of students actually work hard to make good grades and seek to further their academic or professional lives. The large majority are doing what is socially acceptable without ever looking to use the trivial knowledge they learn in the classroom. 

James Fulford writes: I should declare an interest here—I don't actually have a college degree. Neither did my father, or my two grandfathers, all of them journalists. The profession (or trade) of journalism doesn't require one. You can either do this thing or not, and the basic skills of reading and writing can be learned in high school.

But there's another thing that a college degree does for young people and their employers—it substitutes for the IQ tests that employers aren't allowed to use because of "disparate impact."

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