I’ve posted on the topic of the ROI on education many times over the years always from the perspective of following your dream.
We raised our son to understand that his education is all about the life of his mind; the life of his wallet will take care of itself and is a by-product of how he cultivates his thoughts. Marketable skills and money are not the goals of education. We’ve always been more concerned about the quality of the tape that plays in his head than any marketable skills. College is about gaining the mental enrichment to inform whatever you choose to do for a living. If you love to do something, you will make a go of it – even if you have to live in a box under the freeway for a while. That’s what we always told our son, anyway. He grew up knowing that his undergraduate education would be our last financial gift to him, and he could do whatever he wanted with it, absolutely no strings. We would not support him financially in his adulthood because we have our own lives to live and provide for. He’s always known that and has looked forward to making his own way in the world, whatever that eventually looks like for him; money/employability was never the driver, never the goal.
Given his interests in high school, we thought he’d end up living in an old car traveling around with a camera on his shoulder enjoying seeing life through a lens, and that’s all that mattered. Instead, he astounded us in his junior year saying that he felt he needed to serve his country before venturing out on his own. His prep school talked a lot about service and told its students they better not dare consume a quarter of a million dollars of this world’s goods without considering the weight of that consumption. He took that very seriously and will all of his life. Though we never struggled with him being a starving cinematographer, we struggled mightily with him joining the military. The irony! We and his school taught him service above self but never considered that he would choose the “wrong” kind of service. The fates are laughing at us, I’m sure. But, I’m also sure he didn’t choose his current path for money.
I’ve never understood the argument that you have to be rich to pursue education for education’s sake, and I’ve never understood expecting some form of financial ROI on college. To be well educated is an end in itself, a great gift to oneself and those you share it with. What does money have to do with it? I always figured I could cut hair or learn some other trade to avoid starvation, but I never equated my education or that of our son’s with what I’d/he’d be able to earn. Education is about the ability to live happily and fully, curiously engaged in one’s head. For me, the by-product of that internal engagement has always been sufficient to translate into something useful enough to keep me off the streets. I grew up extremely poor, went to beauty school out of high school, and ended up in college by a twist of fate. What I learned there was the magic of books and stories and writing and history and engagement with people and faculty who helped me start to think differently and more deeply about the world around me. I left a very different, better person from the one who entered, and I treasure that mental epiphany and those magical years I almost missed more than anything. That transformation, not any particular job, is what education is to me and what we wanted for our son. He always understood that he could pursue whatever he wanted and he should pursue what he loved but that he was on his own to support himself with it, just like his parents did. If he never makes much money, so what? If he lives in a box under the freeway but does what he loves, what’s wrong with that? If his life is hard, why shouldn’t it be? I sure would hate to see him pursue something he doesn’t love just to make money. His education will keep him company while he finds his way with no financial help from us.
At some point, we’ve turned college into trade school and a financial proposition. I find that tragic, and I think that reduction misses the boat of life by miles. For any who are thinking that there has to be some minumum financial payback for the outrageous cost of the educational experience demanded by most here on CC, let me counter that the type of education I’m talking about can be had at hundreds of schools and at many price points, does not have to be completed in four years or out of state, and does not require a boarding experience. It costs, but it doesn’t have to impoverish. If you let go of any ROI notions, you come closer to my definition of what college is for – acquiring knowledge for the pure love and mental enrichment of it. I believe the rest will take care of itself. It’s the ROI cynicism that is turning our bastions of higher education into trade schools and our would-be scholars into money grubbers. And, for better or worse, our kids are excellent consumers of the messages they hear.