I have never understood this logic. Why do so many on this board assume that education-for-education’s-sake is a luxury for the wealthy because well-off parents will financially support their mis-educated=un/underemployable adult children and all others must consider financial ROI? This is the thinking that has turned college into vocational school. We raised our son to understand that the value of education is in the deep enrichment of his mind and that he should study whatever interested him and base his life’s work on where his heart landed as that’s where he’d have the best chance for fulfillment. Financial prospects never entered into this discussion. The only ROI we looked for was his intellectual curiosity – and we told kiddo that college would be our last financial gift to him. He’d be on his own to make his way in the world the same as we were. That’s how he’d become an adult. We weren’t really worried that he’d live in a box under the freeway but, if he did, that would be part of his journey, not ours. He should have no expectation of financial rescue from us in his post-college adulthood.
This. We feel that a broad-based (and, dare I say it, “liberal arts”) education unfocused on job training, salary potential, or any other metric not related to simply producing a well-educated, intellectually curious individual misses the entire point of that education. This does not seem to be a popular or commonly-shared opinion here, but I think it’s important to include in this conversation.