College
It was not that long ago that the prospect of getting a college education was lifechanging for an entire family. Today, college is more accessible than ever with options ranging from the traditional in-classroom experience to options entirely online. I, myself, teach graduate courses in healthcare law and ethics entirely online to students learning in a hybrid model. However, there needs to be a serious discussion about the cost to benefit ratio that our students are having to confront when deciding on a path for their future. On one hand, there are many short-sighted companies that will simply not hire anyone without a college degree. On the other, even with a college degree many of those same companies are not willing to pay their employees a respectable wage. We now have an entire generation, the most educated in history, struggling to find work that matches their degree training and pays enough to cover not only the cost of living, but enough to repay their unbelievably high student debt.
So, do I believe college is worth it? ABSOLUTELY! I strongly believe that we have a tragic misunderstanding of the primary purpose of a college education. It’s not to get a job, but to expand your mind, teach you about our world, and make you a more thoughtful and critical thinker. One of my most brilliant colleagues from law school had been a working actor with a fine arts degree, a perfect example of my point. College, as well as our primary and secondary education, should primarily be for the development of our minds and our abilities to solve problems. I didn’t necessarily need to have learned about mortgages or credit while in high school because I was taught the scientific method in biology, and the order of operations in algebra. Because I actually learned why mitochondria are the powerhouses of the cell, I learned how to start at the beginning of a problem of which I did not know the answer, and through hard work and critical thought, come to the correct one. So today, when I come up against a problem, using the tools I learned in school I know that I can figure out the solution.
Trade school should be held at the same level as a university education, without our technical education programs we simply could not function as a society. However, I feel there is the same disconnect happening with trade school as with universities, that the students are going in with the primary goal of getting a job. Education is so much more than learning to be a one-trick pony, it is an opportunity to develop your mind in such a way that should the need ever arise, you possess the mental skills required to adapt and change course.
If our public universities incorporate trade programs then require all students to complete general requirements in both trade as well as traditional academic courses, incredible things will begin to happen. We will have students studying chemistry also learning how to weld, increasing their brains ability to reason and making them into even better problem solvers. We will have students studying diesel mechanics but also taking business classes, teaching them how to start and run their own companies rather than relying on the often lower-paying jobs offered by major national chains. On our campuses we will have dorm rooms full of a unique blend of minds and life paths. Imagine what industries could be born from an apartment full of engineering, business, natural resource management, welding, and diesel mechanic students simply sitting around their living room, discussing ideas. My alma mater in Price, USU Eastern, is already doing this and developing one of the most intellectually diverse campuses in the nation. It gives me chills just to think about what those students are about to bring into our world.
