Is College A Waste of Time?

In a word, yes.

If you don't believe me, here are 7 more reasons to think about. But you should believe me, because you know I'm right. The entire educational system is about keeping people in their cushy academic jobs at the University level and making sure teachers get to keep their jobs at the secondary level, regardless of whether or not they're qualified or even good at what they do. (More thoughts on that, over here.) And to be frank, in the wake of my educational experience, I become more and more pissed off over what amounts to the massive swindling of my generation by the educational-industrial complex.

We were told, spoon-fed, had it pounded into us time and time again that a college education is a necessary thing to have in order to achieve something resembling a middle class existence. Problem is that notion is becoming increasingly untrue, especially today. Students are graduating with higher debt loads than ever before, only to find that there are no jobs out there. They try delaying the real world (I'm guilty of that, I admit) by going to grad school only to end up with even more debt. And even after that, jobs are damn hard to find these days. Student loans can't be discharged through bankruptcy and those people are assholes about it too. No love, no mercy, no help- just an end to a halfway decent credit score and once you default on those loans, well, kiss your chance of a house goodbye anytime soon.

The education system is sucking young people into a debt trap and with little or nothing to show for it, it's no surprise that skepticism is growing about the value of higher education and education in general in this country. High school is bullshit. It's basically a social experience rather than an educational one and high schools by rights should have vigorous curricula set up to help kids find their passion and figure out what they're going to do with themselves once they actually grow up. Universities should be fiendish about insisting on graduation in four years (guilty of being a super-senior, as well I'm afraid.) and career training, job placement and internships should all be required for every single student.

I've become increasingly convinced we need a major revolution of some kind in this country- not a violent one, because I'm a lover not a fighter. But things need to change, drastically and the need for that is nowhere more obvious than in our educational system.

UPDATED, 8/4/10: Hmmm, I might have to check this book out.