Day 3 - Edu-ma-cation

Fun topic, that whole education thing. I spent a lot of time in the education system and I have many ideas and opinions about it, so it's a good topic to write about. I just read this article on the CBC website and thought I'd throw out some points on the topic.

I agree with one of the major points that there is an obsession among parents to send their children to university. Like many things in life, higher education is something that a person needs to commit to and have some facility with to see real benefit. That's a fancy way of saying that some people aren't cut out for university. The author (Robert Smol) indicates the cost of higher education as something that should be considered. That is sensible advice - does it make sense to struggle for 4 years at something that you don't get much out of and pay all that money? That time and money could have been put to better use.

I guess the first problem is one of perception - namely the best/wealthiest careers come out of university and the smartest people are university educated. Both these ideas are flawed in many ways. The example of Bill Gates comes to mind - he started, but never finished, an undergraduate degree. However he has been very successful and seems to be a pretty smart guy all round. Many people involved in the early days of personal computing followed a similar path - self taught and now very wealthy. The opposite condition is also true - some university educated people are not terribly smart. They may be hard working, or they may be smart but chose a discipline that doesn't capture their imagination, so they don't come across as the best in their field.

I present a two-pronged conclusion: tine one is that it is more important to find something that captures your imagination. Your child may not have anything like that, so helping them discover that will have the most benefit. The second conclusion tine is that the obsession with university degrees is diluting the meaning of them. So many people have degrees now that many companies will not consider applicants that do not have post-secondary education, even for positions that don't need them. I don't have an examples off-hand, but it's like requiring a degree in computer engineer to sell electronics at Best Buy. Sure, that person could understand everything they sell from the circuit level up, but why would it matter? Does that make them a better salesperson?

The requiring of university degrees for positions that don't require post-secondary skills is a disease that is probably impossible to stem at this point. I know that my degree is worth less than my father-in-law's undergraduate degree. I think he had to work harder than I did, but I think that people going through my program now have an easier time that I did. I'm sure there are people out there that may disagree with me and I welcome their observations.

Not a bad start. This is a topic that I can mine for some time, so keep watching this space.