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Years ago, I used to mock myself for being unmarried and broke. “Never hath God given a man so much,” I would derisively scold myself, “and seen so little come of it.”
And one of the prime causes of my abject futility in life was my “education.” Here’s the skinny on my formal education:
| Education Phase | Years in Phase | Field of Study | Number of Concrete Skills Gained That Were Valued by Employers |
|---|---|---|---|
| K-12 | 13 | General | 0 |
| Undergraduate - Round 1 | 4 | Sociology | 0 |
| Undergraduate - Round 2 | 2 | Journalism | 0 |
| Graduate | 2 | Public Administration | 0 |
| Totals | 21 | 4 | 0 |
I emerged from each phase of my formal education with no economically valuable skills. When I finished the K-12 phase, no employer hired me to solve quadratic equations or throw a football. When I finished the undergrad round one phase, no employer hired me to study how Americans and the communities they create tick. When I finished the undergrad round two phase, no employer hired me to report on anything—not even banal local stories such as the opening of a new car wash. And when I finished the graduate phase, no employer hired me to administer anything—not even a pretzel stand at the mall.
The only thing my 21 years of “education” across four different fields qualified me for was entry-level work that required no particular skills or knowledge. My degrees merely signaled to employers that I wasn’t a complete moron and that I could be trained for glorified monkey work.
Now contrast my formal education with my nephew’s. Like me, he obtained the useless high school degree. But unlike me, his post-secondary education entailed trade school rather than college. My nephew just got his CDL license. It cost him $4,000 and consumed four months of effort. His starting salary? Sixty thousand dollars. That’s nearly as much as I was making in 2016, my last year of gainful employment before I retired.
At the very least, education should provide you with at least one concrete skill that is valued in the labor market. My eight years of post-secondary education didn’t do that. My nephew’s four months of post-secondary education did. I was thus schooled—I spent a lot of time and money devouring and regurgitating knowledge that no one in the real world cared about. My nephew, on the other hand, was educated.
A big part of America’s problem right now is that too many of its young people are being schooled rather than educated. And an even bigger problem for America is that so few realize it.
Thanks for this great comparison
Your comparison is eye-opening. It’s alarming how traditional education often lacks practical skills, while vocational training offers immediate value. Your nephew’s success story is a powerful example. Thank you for shedding light on this crucial issue.
Your nephew was trained, not schooled nor educated. Your failure to leverage your schooling to become educated and network to gain traction in a job and then a career is your’s alone.
Yes – i wonder about your choice of words as well as your disrespect of any of your schooling in providing a framework for your own career development. Not a very insightful post.
I denote a little elitism in your comment. If a doctor learned how to fix a heart valve in college, would you say he was neither schooled nor educated–he was “trained”? But you make some fair points. Here’s my view on education in a nutshell:
The primary purposes of education are to 1) give one the skills necessary to earn a comfortable living, and 2) give one the skills necessary to be a good steward of one’s health, relationships, finances, and freedom.
Now, the primary responsibility for acquiring an education falls on the individual student. On that much, I think we agree. But do our schools have any responsibility when it comes to their students’ outcomes in life?
Governments at all levels combined spend over $1 trillion annually on education. And educators say we have to spend even more than that because they are so critical to the success of America and its people. And yet our schools and educators bear no responsibility–as long as they’ve provided the career development “framework”–for the millions of Americans who are fat, broke, and utterly dependent on government for their sustenance?
You’re much too forgiving of our schools and educators, my friend. But I do appreciate your moxie. Hope to hear from you again. Cheers.
I do appreciate your first paragraph & the change in tone from the charge of ‘elitism’ over to ‘some fair points’. Responses to blogs always lose something in translation – no disrespect intended; you also make some fair points on the cost of the education establishment and their lack of financial accountability. However, i found some career counselors, as well as head hunters and even HR departments, could also be evaluated as wanting in financial ROI / accountability. That said, when i used the term ‘your’ i do intend to ask if you sought out help with your multiple career paths and if the degrees would help navigate you down them or if you followed what you loved?
Your vlog response as you said was a summary of your already articulated position vis a vis the ‘educational establishment’.
Btw, unpacking your hypothetical about a dr / heart valve would take more space but if interested i’ll respond separately.
Also, i was a chip mfg process automation engineer (non-degreed) for 20 years so i do have some ideas about skills/jobs etc. — another pending response.
Thanks.
Holy crap! That was a beautiful reply. Made my day, my friend. I love it when someone challenges my viewpoints and “puts me in my place” (so to speak) in a respectful manner. We’re all friends here, and my main objective with this blog is to get things right, not to be “right.” There’s no doubt that my 21 years of non-computer-related schooling did help with my IT career. It’s amazing how handy it was being able to construct a competent sentence in my IT workplace. It really helped gain the respect of coworkers I only communicated with via email. And that’s my main gripe with our education system. We have too little meat and too much gristle. That translates into a lot of wasted time and money–something the working class and poor are least able to shoulder. I’d like to see many more certificates and far fewer degrees. But that gripe is grist for a future post. Thank you once again for your articulate and well-measured reply. Cheers.
Given that I took what you might call a liberal arts approach to my undergraduate: Major in Mathematics, minors in Philosophy, Physics, and Bible, I understand the distinction between trained and educated.
I would also venture that your typical graduate with a woke degree in Post-Colonial Minority Gender Queer Grievance Studies is woefully ignorant of many things it takes to be a well-rounded human. One cannot formulate a Hegelian synthesis from a thesis of woke pieties and an antithesis of <>. To wit, when the woke party’s primary response to disagreement is “shut up” there’s nothing but the repetition of woke dogma rattling around the skull full of mush.
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Exactly! The “career development framework” that our benevolent educators so graciously provide isn’t translating into widespread competency. The typical American is a poor steward of his or her health, relationships, career, finances, and freedom. But heaven forbid anyone questions the “career development framework” or the motives and priorities of our benevolent educators. Just settle down and obey. Only a disrespectful fool would ask our educators–the self-proclaimed brightest and most caring people in the room–to change things up. Their comfort is far more important than the success of their students.
K-12… 2 skills learned… counting and grammar. I’m sure you used those.
Oh, I used them. But no employer whoever pitied me and hired me seemed to care if I had those skills.
Of course, they did…I understand you’re trying to make a point but don’t be so naive.
Not necessarily, my friend. During high school I worked in a bowling alley as a general helper. No counting or grammar was involved. During undergrad round one I worked in a bakery (cleaning pots, pans, and trays) and a movie theater (taking tickets, making popcorn, and cleaning). Neither of those jobs involved counting or grammar. After undergrad round one, I mixed cement for a spray stucco company. Then I got hired by the local highway department to cut grass and shovel asphalt. Again, neither of those jobs involved counting or grammar. It wasn’t until I decided to shift gears in my highway career and become a construction inspector that counting and grammar came into play. So I’m not trying to be cute or snarky. The only employer who hired me and remotely cared about my counting and grammar skills was the employer who hired me at the age of 46 to be a data analyst. And I only assume that that employer cared about my counting and grammar skills. The interview process was predominately about my SQL skills.
It isn’t the schooled vs educated distinction. It’s the content of what’s studied. Though I’ve seldom done anything with my mathematics degree harder than Freshman calc. Nor have a used my undergraduate Fortran class since the ’80s. But these created habits of thinking I applied to mastering the particulars of subsequent gigs. What habits of thinking does a Poly Sci degree cultivate?
Now, who’s advising the young skulls full of mush that they need to follow their hearts into debt-slavery for a Post-Colonial Minority Gender Queer Grievance major? (Not that I’m judging anyone’s genome or sexual appetites, just pointing out there’s no money in it.)
When I talk to some kid who’s “following her heart” into a useless major, I ask, “Is there any money in it?” The clue train makes a stop, but they seldom accept delivery.
steve poling recently posted…Dave Ramsey Heresy
For most people, following one’s heart is a fool’s errand. Most people simply don’t have the talent and discipline to turn their passions into a comfortable income. So most people would be far better off scraping and clawing their way to financial independence in a mundane profession and then pursuing their passions in early retirement.
That’s so very true. The reason I picked chemical engineering was it was too difficult for the majority of students to pass and highly compensated for those who did. It just made no sense to me to not major in something that would guarantee me a job. I had eight firm job offers a semester before I graduated.
Imagine that! Concrete skills give one great odds of landing well-compensated employment. Who would have thunk it?
Another problem is that some parents think it’s the job of the schools to do all of the teaching when educating our kids starts at home and as soon as they can understand. For example, when my 15 month old grandson visits, he wants to explore everything. I spend time telling his what each thing is, what colors are and what I am doing. When he is naughty, I sit him on my lap and count to 60 out loud. Not only does he have time to calm down but he is learning about these things even if he can’t do them himself yet. We also have to stop fixing things for our kids all the time. Let them figure out how to get along with their sibling, read instructions on a new game, use a map, etc. If we focused on teaching kids to love learning, problem solving and respect for others, they would have valuable life skills. Finally, employers need to recognize these skills and look to hire people with them rather than checking off the box for an oftentimes useless degree. On the job training, both for white and blue collar jobs, can often be all a person needs to succeed. Of course this doesn’t work for some specialized fields like medicine, law and engineering, but what clerk ever really needs much more than basic skills in Microsoft office?
“[W]what clerk ever really needs much more than basic skills in Microsoft office?”
Haha! I love it. With basic algebra and basic programming, I ran with Microsoft Office and became my company’s automation guru!
Yeah, but you undersell yourself Mr. G. I had nondegreed guys as smart as any of my engineers building databases and macros I couldn’t build. You were one of those guys, except you had degrees too. You aren’t typical, you are pretty amazing. Talent is talent and not everybody has it.
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You’re way too kind. But at this stage of the game, I accept all superlatives. Made my day, my friend. Cheers.