Harping on the Woes & Wastes of Overeducation
What is the world coming to when you can't rely on old-boy networks anymore? So we share the distinction with a couple hundred thousand people, if the CEO of a company is a Cal alumnus shouldn't I be somewhere further up the ladder than shipping clerk?
Work is an exercise in frustration, I've come to terms with this. I'm absolutely wide-eyed awake to the fact that I need to fill in my time with structured hobbies to avoid going insane. I'm looking for a job that would make me feel a little bit of satisfaction -- anything other than futility, really -- but I've realized that it's going to take a long, long time. LOTS of research, trial and error, and networking. Like a self-taught college education for each new interest I discover. Want to work in healthcare? Immerse yourself in a hospital environment to see how it's all run. But first get a 2-year med tech degree if you don't want to be changing bedpans. Then while on the job, make connections with decision makers, lobbyists, policy makers. Then after that, maybe you decide public policy is the better option. To avoid the most embarrassing mistakes, some knowledge of law and politics is required. Or maybe some experience in reporting. But that takes clips, experience...another year or so volunteering or interning. I'll be broke until I'm 30. But say then I've decided that it's the farther future I'm interested in. I want to usher in the age of intergalactic exploration. I want to create Star Trek on Earth. Well, then I've got to blow my savings on at least two degrees in astronomy or physics. How is a person ever to reach their potential in one lifetime? Maybe cryobiology is the answer...
To return to my current frustration: my situation as a temp cheapens the Berkeley name. Shouldn't they be on my case to get a better job? It's their reputation on the line, after all. Pssh.
What I'm really steamed about is the use of the four-year degree as a standard for hiring lowly people like temps and junior assistants. A four-year degree doesn't get us nearly as much as it got our parents. What a waste of resources for society to basically require a large part of the population to suffer through four years of intensive education that they don't really want! The solution is to increase the worth of an Associates' degree. Make them harder to get, or offer them at accredited four-year universities as a pre-req for a Bachelor's. My dad's BS in physics was recently downgraded to a BA by today's standards. Maybe we should just admit that today's Associates is worth yesterday's Bachelor's, and that's plenty good for most people.
I've been thinking and writing about this country's higher-education system since high school, when college applications had me staying up late, missing assignments, shitting bricks and popping antidepressants. Basically, freaking out and shooting myself in the feet. Something as taxing (in more ways than one) as an education shouldn't be a ticket to something as basic as a comfortable living. In many parts of the world, young adults live with their parents for much longer. Would that threaten our independence or help us grow? Imagine not having to worry about student loans, car loans, rent and health insurance while getting your first taste of the world. Wouldn't that make you better-adjusted? Imagine getting an AA with your friends from high school, learning who you really are and establishing an emotional support system BEFORE the grueling work of a more advanced degree, or simply learning all those things before being thrust out into the world, because you had time to breathe and sleep and ponder personal things at the same time as training for a career?
I know it's not that simple. I know it's about competition, and volume of applicants, and needing some system for weeding people out (not to mention social status). But the current system doesn't do justice to the passion and efforts of college professors, researchers, administrators--countless students like me who get graduate-school-preparatory educations without ever planning to continue in academia just waste their time, and the time of the more devoted students around them. Higher learning institutions need more specialization, and students need more guidance, to avoid massive abuse of this country's university system, and the proliferation of private four-year colleges whose Bachelor's degrees are barely worth the AA's of the more respected community colleges. Not many people know what they want to do for the next 50 years when they turn 18. Not many 18-year-olds understand the scope of 50 years. An education (and needless to say, the cost of one) is a terrible thing to waste, and I for one feel like I've squandered four years of my life, plus one spent decompressing; vast sums of my parents' money; and much of my liver, my lung capacity and my sanity. What does this mean for freedom of choice, for competition and for innovation? For our country's status in the world? Probably nothing. Look at where we are now: large portions of the population live in ignorance and fear, many more have sold their soul to the cause of cynicism, and innovation and the economy have screeched to a halt in the face of these factors. The same people who set the curve of innovation now wouldn't suffer from a little less social pressure. They'd probably be happier. In fact, a lot of people would probably be happier, and maybe we'd learn to see that sense of well-being, rather than a head full of expensive exotica, for what it really is: progress.
Work is an exercise in frustration, I've come to terms with this. I'm absolutely wide-eyed awake to the fact that I need to fill in my time with structured hobbies to avoid going insane. I'm looking for a job that would make me feel a little bit of satisfaction -- anything other than futility, really -- but I've realized that it's going to take a long, long time. LOTS of research, trial and error, and networking. Like a self-taught college education for each new interest I discover. Want to work in healthcare? Immerse yourself in a hospital environment to see how it's all run. But first get a 2-year med tech degree if you don't want to be changing bedpans. Then while on the job, make connections with decision makers, lobbyists, policy makers. Then after that, maybe you decide public policy is the better option. To avoid the most embarrassing mistakes, some knowledge of law and politics is required. Or maybe some experience in reporting. But that takes clips, experience...another year or so volunteering or interning. I'll be broke until I'm 30. But say then I've decided that it's the farther future I'm interested in. I want to usher in the age of intergalactic exploration. I want to create Star Trek on Earth. Well, then I've got to blow my savings on at least two degrees in astronomy or physics. How is a person ever to reach their potential in one lifetime? Maybe cryobiology is the answer...
To return to my current frustration: my situation as a temp cheapens the Berkeley name. Shouldn't they be on my case to get a better job? It's their reputation on the line, after all. Pssh.
What I'm really steamed about is the use of the four-year degree as a standard for hiring lowly people like temps and junior assistants. A four-year degree doesn't get us nearly as much as it got our parents. What a waste of resources for society to basically require a large part of the population to suffer through four years of intensive education that they don't really want! The solution is to increase the worth of an Associates' degree. Make them harder to get, or offer them at accredited four-year universities as a pre-req for a Bachelor's. My dad's BS in physics was recently downgraded to a BA by today's standards. Maybe we should just admit that today's Associates is worth yesterday's Bachelor's, and that's plenty good for most people.
I've been thinking and writing about this country's higher-education system since high school, when college applications had me staying up late, missing assignments, shitting bricks and popping antidepressants. Basically, freaking out and shooting myself in the feet. Something as taxing (in more ways than one) as an education shouldn't be a ticket to something as basic as a comfortable living. In many parts of the world, young adults live with their parents for much longer. Would that threaten our independence or help us grow? Imagine not having to worry about student loans, car loans, rent and health insurance while getting your first taste of the world. Wouldn't that make you better-adjusted? Imagine getting an AA with your friends from high school, learning who you really are and establishing an emotional support system BEFORE the grueling work of a more advanced degree, or simply learning all those things before being thrust out into the world, because you had time to breathe and sleep and ponder personal things at the same time as training for a career?
I know it's not that simple. I know it's about competition, and volume of applicants, and needing some system for weeding people out (not to mention social status). But the current system doesn't do justice to the passion and efforts of college professors, researchers, administrators--countless students like me who get graduate-school-preparatory educations without ever planning to continue in academia just waste their time, and the time of the more devoted students around them. Higher learning institutions need more specialization, and students need more guidance, to avoid massive abuse of this country's university system, and the proliferation of private four-year colleges whose Bachelor's degrees are barely worth the AA's of the more respected community colleges. Not many people know what they want to do for the next 50 years when they turn 18. Not many 18-year-olds understand the scope of 50 years. An education (and needless to say, the cost of one) is a terrible thing to waste, and I for one feel like I've squandered four years of my life, plus one spent decompressing; vast sums of my parents' money; and much of my liver, my lung capacity and my sanity. What does this mean for freedom of choice, for competition and for innovation? For our country's status in the world? Probably nothing. Look at where we are now: large portions of the population live in ignorance and fear, many more have sold their soul to the cause of cynicism, and innovation and the economy have screeched to a halt in the face of these factors. The same people who set the curve of innovation now wouldn't suffer from a little less social pressure. They'd probably be happier. In fact, a lot of people would probably be happier, and maybe we'd learn to see that sense of well-being, rather than a head full of expensive exotica, for what it really is: progress.