Through my years of public education, anyone with any sense was going to college. College was the future for intellectual up and comers. I was born in the very end of the 50's, so by the time of my arrival, people with higher learning degrees were considered intellectually superior. Gone were the days of one room schoolhouses with a young single woman as the teacher. The days of midwives and advice of the older women were already replaced with ob/gyns and pediatricians. Nurses were no longer trained by apprenticeship or convent assignment. Undertakers in many states were no longer apprenticed or interns, but degreed. Even preachers went to seminary. Actually the concept of advanced learning, licensure, and title began religiously.
By the time I came into this world, the educational caste system was in place.
In 1960, there were about twice the number of men with college degrees as women. The year 1981 marked the gender equality in advanced education, and from that time forward women have exceeded men in attaining academic degrees. I, personally have "some" college, and Bible college. I have studied a great deal of alternative health courses and have certification in many alternative health modalities. Those and $2.00 will get me a cup of coffee in most American cities. I am not at all against knowledge. I love learning, and for years I literally idolized books and academia, but one day I realized education was no longer about knowledge or learning, it became about programming.
Once everyone was properly programmed to embrace the notion that unlike India's caste system, one could educate their way into another status, the bondage began. In the early days of higher learning scholarships were awarded to the outstanding students in specific disciplines. When college became a status commodity, scholarships lost their academic value, but gained some amazing athletes for pro-sports. Ultimately, in many areas, scholarships became tokens. What was once something to strive for, because a reason to change your degree for a few dollars toward the tuition for a "sheep skin." The individual's interest and ability became in obtaining the degree to frame, rather than knowledge and credentials for a specific career. I'd say Steve Job, Bill Gates, and Rush Limbaugh are among the best examples of using a talent, rather than paying for programmed status. They are the exceptions in my generation, but historically speaking, it was never education that made the great men, great.
Since college has become so important to one's identity and status, money of course, is the means to this lofty end. Grants and student loans offered everyone the chance for an education, a level playing field, so to speak. But it isn't. It's still the wealthiest kids or the kids with well known parents, that attend the Ivy League Schools. Scholarships and grants have drastically diminished and for the average High School graduate of Middle Class parents, college will amount to at least 20 years of debt toward their new career, just as soon as the economy picks up and employment opportunities become available in all the dime a dozen degrees that have been promoted. I mean, colleges have bills to pay too and an economic downturn affects the bottom line of higher education.
I read one article that said a college degree today equates with a high school diploma of 1950. I can't say, one way or another, but I do know I have personally known 2 men of the One Percent and heard the stories of another. None of those men were educated beyond High School, but they all pursued careers in which they had a natural interest and a G-d given talent. My goal is not a financial one, and I don't know that their's was, but to embrace life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness using the talents placed in me by my Creator to accomplish His purpose for my life is all the status this Other 1 Percenter could hope for.
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