A College Degree Is No Guarantee of a Good Life: The Atlantic Article

[polly_mer]

https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2020/07/will-going-college-make-you-happier/613729/

[Wahoo Redux]

Yeah, okay.

I like The Atlantic and actually subscribe to it.

The article is fine, but (as all the hyperlinks attest) all this has been said before.  It is essentially rehash and summary with a bit of saccharine at the end.

It is interesting coming from a Harvard biz-prof, but I am a little bit, like, "Duh.  Is it just now occurring to you that college is not a necessity!?"  Who knows?  Maybe it did just occur to the author.

The concluding story about the son who becomes a rancher, wood-hauler, and eventually a Marine is also fine, but accidentally classist and a bit presumptive: who knows if he's made a life mistake or will reverse the course of his career?  The story is just a bit too pat and simplistic and sounds more like age-old rebellion to me.

What I do like is the focus on the parents----I know we've all seen miserable or wandering or immature, unmotivated college students who've registered because of their parents.

As always, the main argument is the cost of college.  That's the real enemy.  My father in-law paid for his college degree with summer jobs.  Not any more.  We should be working to change the dynamic.

And who ever said college was a guarantee of happiness anyway?!

[writingprof]

For many people, college equips one with some of the tools needed to go out and achieve happiness. That is all.

[Hegemony]

College ideally enables one to get more intellectual jobs.

More intellectual jobs does not translate automatically into happiness or into the "good life." In so far as such jobs keep poverty at bay, they're useful. But it's offensive to claim that people can't have good lives without college degrees.  The Atlantic headline is a bit sloppy, as headlines often are.

[dismalist]

Happiness is overrated.

[TreadingLife]

Happiness is overrated.

Very on-brand, dismalist.

[kaysixteen]

The best overall value of a real college education, more or less irrespective of major, ought to be the acquisition of critical thinking skills and discernment, hopefully with at least some well-rounded knowledge base as well.

[marshwiggle]

The best overall value of a real college education, more or less irrespective of major, ought to be the acquisition of critical thinking skills and discernment, hopefully with at least some well-rounded knowledge base as well.

If completing a major does not provide a student with a well-rounded knowledge base in addition to the skills, something is wrong. (Especially because if every graduate has the skills, the knowledge base of an individual will be necessary to stand apart in competition for employment with all of the other graduates.)

[writingprof]

All this job-training stuff is for the birds. I got into this business to educate the sons of gentlemen.

[Hibush]

All this job-training stuff is for the birds. I got into this business to educate the sons of gentlemen.

Clarity of mission goes a long way to driving success.

[Wahoo Redux]

All this job-training stuff is for the birds. I got into this business to educate the sons of gentlemen.

Clarity of mission goes a long way to driving success.

We specifically educate swains, serfs, and peasants.  That's why our business school can afford those foam-encased microphones that they throw around their auditorium when visiting speakers come to town.