On the first day of my Constitutional Law class, someone asked the professor if she thought there were too many lawyers and if the field was oversaturated. One of her remarks in response to the question struck me. She said that as a rule of thumb, she would just never recommend obtaining a graduate degree where the costs incurred were greater than the earnings would be in the first year in the workforce post graduation. Advice like this seems like solid, standard practice financial advice, but the idea that there are circumstances in which formal education might not be worth the cost turned my mind to higher education broadly, and the debts we occur in its pursuit.
I don’t think the high school to college pipeline is always a positive norm. I was fortunate enough to have a sense of direction of my long term goals as early as middle school, thus when I got to high school I enrolled in as many concurrent enrollment classes as I could as soon as I could. My long term goal of becoming an attorney fueled my motivation and forged my path in high school. Nevertheless, not everyone has that clarity, and contrary to popular tradition, university years may not be the best–and certainly not the cheapest–time to go searching for it. Too many young adults go to college and spend four years “finding themselves”, partying, and digging themselves further into debt with degrees that won’t pay the bills (and this is coming from a Poli Sci major).
This is certainly not to suggest that I am against education. The current prophet, President Nelson, is quoted saying, “Education is the difference between wanting to help someone, and knowing how to help”. I sustain this principle wholeheartedly and value my education for the way that it enables me to help others, and for the way educated persons help me. But education needn’t always exist strictly as academic institutions of higher learning. The kind of lifelong education that is pursued in all stages of life and from every available source is separate from–but not mutually exclusive with–formal university degrees. Some of the most educated individuals I know lack expensive degrees. They have devoted their lives to learning about the world from books, from stories, and from natural curiosity.
So how do we utilize both formal and informal sources of learning to eliminate the waste of time and resources? What can public education do to improve the lives and wellbeing of students post high school graduation? When higher education is the chosen path, how do we increase the efficacy of time at a university? Schools offer aptitude tests, but kids don’t take them seriously. How useful and relevant are the results? Perhaps we should look at the collegiate and professional sports model, where youth are scouted for sports as young as middle school, and their talent is followed, encouraged and nurtured for years. What if schools implemented a similar system for standardized tests? What if parents could opt in to sharing their children’s test scores with a database that connects students with potential employers? What if students who excel in math and science were “scouted” by computer software companies that then “sponsored” their education? Clearly this idea is still in its early phases with countless logistical issues, but implementing programs that help kids identify their passions and strengths early on in order to help them in their transition into the workforce could be extremely beneficial to the individuals–and to society as a whole. This way, kids attend college to specialize and learn about their desired fields, streamlining their development and preventing years, money, and spirits from being wasted.
In addition to inventive programs like this, we ought to require entrepreneurship classes to show children that they have the opportunity to become innovators. Not everyone needs to be a lawyer, doctor, engineer, or classically trained administrative businessman to be successful. Further, the future workforce should understand that giving birth to a new business doesn’t require novel goods or services; society flourishes because of plumbers, diesel mechanics, welders, ranchers–people who start the businesses that aren’t flashy to keep the national economy in motion. In my mind, contribution to mankind constitutes success. The beautiful thing is that different individuals have individual talents to contribute!
The best way to identify and harness a person’s capacity to contribute to society is not always through university classes. When it is, years and borrowed money are too frivolously spent. If we want to maximize the efficiency of schooling and open students’ eyes to all the options of post high school life, the traditional pathway of education in America may need a renovation.