College: Why Bother?

            MAY 15, 2010 – PRINCETON, N.J. – I love college campuses.  I spent eight of the best years of my life on one.  No, it didn’t take me eight years to graduate from college.  It took me eight years to get a bachelor’s degree and a law degree.  I know, that’s only supposed to take seven, but I was red-shirted one year.

            Even though it’s been 32 years since my last commencement, I still spend as much time as I can on college campuses.  I live just a Frisbee-throw away from Rhodes College, and I love the place.  As a “sidewalk alum,” I go to the Rhodes campus several times a week to work out or attend a ball game or a lecture or just to pretend I’m young again.

            Today, I’m on the campus of Princeton University.  While Princeton is not an SEC school (I understand it’s in something called the “Ivy League”), it’s a pretty good university.  It’s fully accredited and, I’ve been told, has some fairly high admission standards.  To get admitted, you not only have to have good grades, you also have to be very good at taking a pencil and filling in those bubbles on the Scholastic Aptitude Test.

            I am here at Princeton today to watch my son run in a track meet.  He is a junior at Boston University, and from what I can observe, he is having almost as much fun in college as I did.

            This is also commencement day at Princeton, and I have noticed a lot of happy graduates walking around the campus in their caps and gowns.  They all seem thrilled to be leaving this place.  I can’t understand why.  If I were in their cap and gown, I would not want to leave.  Alas, college, like youth, is wasted on the young.

            But this spring, as commencement exercises take place on college campuses all across America, some folks are questioning the wisdom of going to college in the first place.  Ironically, a number of these folks are pointy-headed college professors who may not be smart enough to realize that their living depends upon kids going to college.

            According to a recent article in the New York Times, a number of economists and social scientists are now suggesting that for many young people, college is not worth the investment.  Admittedly, going to college these days may cost you a fortune.  The price tag for a bachelor’s degree now ranges from $40,000 at a state university like my alma mater (the Big Orange University in Knoxville) to over $200,000 at some high-falutin place like Vanderbilt.

            But if you are one of those smart kids who make good grades and are very good at taking a pencil and filling in those bubbles on the college entrance exam, there are plenty of scholarships available.  For example, smart kids in Tennessee can attend a state university almost free thanks to the Congressman Steve Cohen Lottery Scholarships.  (Official Motto:  “Smart kids’ college educations funded by dumb grown-ups buying lottery tickets!”)

            No, the pointy-headed professors who now question the wisdom of a college education are not doing so because of the tuition price tag.  Rather, they contend that these days, a college education is not the best preparation for future employment.  According to the article in the New York Times (which, by the way, I believe was written by a college graduate), of the 30 jobs projected to grow at the fastest rate over the next decade in the United States, only seven will require a bachelor’s degree.  The job growth in the coming years is expected to be in such areas as registered nurses, home health care aides, customer service representatives, and store clerks.

            Economists and social scientists are now arguing that for these jobs, the better education would be intensive, short-term vocational and career training.  In other words, no frat parties, no football games, no Frisbee-tossing.  To quote the late great philosopher Paul Harvey, “We’ve become a nation of dreamers, without people who know how to put rivets in our dreams.”

            Well, I’ll be the first to admit that you don’t need a bachelor’s degree to become a greeter at Wal-Mart.  Moreover, reading Paradise Lost and then writing a term paper comparing and contrasting it to The Brothers Karamazov doesn’t specifically prepare you for any job, other than being an English teacher.

            But with all due respect to the brilliant professors who apparently would like a lot fewer students poking around their campuses, let me profess my own non-academic view on the subject.  To borrow a line from the 1972 Nixon campaign, America needs college graduates now more than ever.  We need imaginative, bold thinkers who dream big, but are also smart enough to come up with a plan to put rivets in the dreams to make the dreams come true.

            We need citizens who can read and write and think analytically and work with people from different cultures and backgrounds.

            We need young people with knowledge of our history, including our triumphs and mistakes.  But we need young people who also realize the World is changing somewhat for the better, somewhat for the worst, but inevitably changing.  And we need young people who will be prepared to shape that change for the common good.

            We need young people who are challenged and confronted by people different from them with thoughts and ideas different from them.  We need young people with the experience and sensitivity to return civility, understanding, and a sense of community to our national life.

            And we need some young people who know how to have fun.  Work hard, study hard, and play hard.  Tear the goal post down!  Dance in the streets!  Toss a Frisbee!

            You’re not going to find this at a trade school.  No, my fellow Americans, this is a process that will take at least four years.  And maybe even another if you are red-shirted.

            Finally, just in case you think my comments are entirely academic, let me put my non-scholarship money where my mouth is.  I believe so much in the importance of a college education, that I am ready to return to the campus to renew my studies.

            Now, let’s see . . . where did I put my backpack and my Frisbee?