<p>inpersonal, while I agree with you that in a perfect world, your statement would be absolutely the end of this, the truth is that there are governors who are attempting to potentially defund certain majors based on “employment” results.</p>
<p>So, while you may think the conversation is merely about the relative value some of us place on unmeasurable employment numbers for humanities majors, what we are inadvertently discussing is potential policy decisions based on this questionably useful data.</p>
<p>And, while you may see it as strawmen, and while some may be using examples of highly educated graduates, most of the parents who post on here happen to be highly educated and the type to be interested in education, so that is your sample on this site. However, I can confidently say that I know many liberal arts majors from bigstateu’s who are doing quite well, thankyouverymuch, and some engineers who are having a hard time finding work.</p>
<p>In the end, what some of us are saying is simply that looking at a college education as job training is one perspective. But, what we know, unequivocally, is that education is so much more than that, and the wider implications of focusing our university systems on employment results is really missing the point of what an excellent education should and does give the student: the ability to think well and to apply that ability to think well in every area of his or her life, including but not limited to the professions.</p>
<p>Every single writer who writes that there are “too many people” pursuing useless degrees has a child who is or will be one day pursuing that degree. The educated class knows this, and the need for the instant gratification of a job payoff to “prove” the value of an education is the real strawman in the conversation about the value of post secondary work.</p>
<p>If you want to talk about college costing “too much,” right now, I will go there with you, but if you want to tell me we can value the cost of college based on future employment opportunities, I will tell you college is not vocational school. It is not trade school, and it never was.</p>