Unnecessary College: Part 1: The Money Myth

This past weekend Bill Maher had Mike Rowe on his show. (See clip above.) Mike talked about the plethora of blue collar jobs going unfilled in America - where unemployment is high - because these jobs are not sexy. High schools, Mike says, are pushing everyone into going to college, whether or not the kids want to. I would argue, after being both a college student, TA, and a lecturer now, that high schools, "common knowledge", parents, and who knows what else, are also pushing kids to go to college whether or not they are really ready. I realize that this may seem weird coming from a dorky PhD student who has literally devoted her life to academia, but college is not the end-all-be-all (or at least it shouldn't be). College is not for everyone. In general, this is has nothing to do with intelligence, but with personality and differing aptitudes. Unfortunately, this topic is too big for just one post, so after the jump I will begin by discussing financial aspects of college that go beyond what "common knowledge" likes to pretend.

The Thoughts That Keep Me Up at Night

It has been suggested that human relationships – whether intimate or distant – are based on the idea of the Other. It starts when a mother holds her infant up to a mirror and says, “Look, that’s you.” This is said by some to be the point at which an infant realizes it is an individual among other individuals and that the mother is not a part of the Self. 

This then is said to carry on throughout life and often gets expressed on a societal level, as well as on an intimate level, in negative ways. For example, in cross-cultural exchanges, whether they be first contact situations, international political relations, or anything in between, humans can conceptualize the Other in abstract terms because they are different; they are not the Self. Even within a single culture, a similar dehumanization occurs with the apathy so many people display to societal problems. A rich businessman or politician can decide to cut jobs or programs without guilt because when he does so he does not conceive of the reality of thousands of individuals suffering because of this decision. They are not, in fact, individuals to him. They are the Other, the poor, the unemployed, a statistic.  They are not the Self. 

Why I like living in Asia

I recently became the topic of a Facebook thread. I certainly did not mean for this to happen, but it did; and for reasons unrelated to the couple of personal insults directed towards me, I did get a little angry.

The thread started with a post about the concealed carry law being proposed in my home state. I will admit up front that I know nothing about this. I have been a little too busy to keep up-to-date on all of the wonderful ways in which Walker wants to put WI on the path to 3rd-world-ism. I digress.

In response to the post I made a joke concerning weapons, Bush, Palin, and Walker. My friend who made the post recognized this as such since he is a wise person and can realize that I do not lay awake at night waiting for Palin to shoot me from a helicopter hovering over my home in Taiwan. My friend is for the proposal, but I am not. This is not a problem between us because, again, my friend is a wise person and can understand that a difference in opinion does not mean that either of us thinks poorly of the other.

One of his FB-BFFs however got personal with me. I have seen posts from this individual before and so I already know to expect as much from him. I am not personally bothered by this. My sweet friend perhaps was bothered though because he proceeded to defend me. The thread digressed into a discussion over my intelligence. I would have been amused, but then the “difference” between “intelligent” and “educated” got thrown into the mix. This is where I needed a break from FB.

I won’t deny that intelligent and educated are not synonyms, however, this particular little debate has arisen in several conversations I have been a part of or have read online recently and the implications being made are clear. Educated has become a dirty word in American English, and intelligence has become a meaningless word that describes everyone.

The attacks on education in my own state aside, I see this also in the right wing descriptions of president Obama as well as in other areas of the media. To be a teacher is to suggest that one wasn’t intelligent enough to do something meaningful with their life, and to be educated is to be shunned. The educated have become the ranting sidewalk lunatics. “Just ignore the crazy man sweetie, he’s just educated, he doesn’t count.”

I don’t have this problem here in Taiwan. I don’t go around with a sandwich board announcing that I am here to do research for my PhD, but when people ask me what I am doing here, I tell them the truth. In some cases people react as if they are a bit intimidated, but in most cases people are simply impressed. Either way I have never been treated like a leper for what I have chosen to do with my life, and rather than being ignored when I give my opinion on something I am engaged in healthy debate on the topic and taken seriously. I can say the same for my life in the States.

This is, in my opinion, the rot of American culture. America is a great country, but this is at the heart of our current slow downfall. It makes my angry because I am an American, wherever in the world I may be, and I am tired of being the brunt of other people’s jokes. Yes, America, many people around the world still envy the image of you, but just as many are laughing at you.