The crux of the movie is that by destroying the free market in college educations, the government has put tons of college graduates into enormous debt. Im not 100% sure what the crux was though; it was a while ago and I didn't watch like the last 15 minutes haha
As to what the movie itself was describing, I think that the government has been trying to make its citizens better educated and better able to compete in a global economy by subsidizing college educations to make them more affordable. This drove private loaners out of the market, and led to a lot of people going to college who might better spend their time elsewhere by learning a trade or something. More people going to college means that the value of a degree itself has greatly declined. It doesnt mean much anymore to have a college degree. The demand for college educations has risen as well, drastically increasing tuition costs.
College itself is an interesting topic. A small percentage of people actually go into careers associated with what they majored in. And the students that are supposedly "better prepared for a career" are often forced into entry level jobs, sometimes into career fields where no college level education is necessary. So why go?
I think college is important of our lives for a couple of reasons. One, it serves as a transition between adolescence and adulthood. We studied this in anthropology of religion, where coming-of-age rituals feature aspects of liminality (go wiki this). In this aspect college is very important in making youths into adults. Sociologically, you actually come to embody a different identity. I won't go to heavy into the theory here (you can look it up if you're interested), but identity is said to be rooted in vocation, geography, and social community. I think. This was last semester's material. Anyhoodles what happens in college is that all the things that you identity is rooted in change. You change living conditions/area, you are surrounded by new people, and you come to identify with the new identity of a college student. Hence people experiment with their own identities while they're in flux. Sex, drugs, alcohol, facial hair, fashion styles, and musical/food tastes are all ways in which people's identities begin to shift.
College also serves as a prime social networking opportunity. Even if your degree has nothing to do with your career, the faculty and students you connect with serve as a great resource for potential careers and other opportunities. The friends you make can last a lifetime, and a great number of people meet their future spouse there. It's also really fun to be under financial protection while coming into adulthood, which gives you a lot more freedom. I think we all owe our parents on this one.
College is really only useful academically when your career follows from your degree. In that case, business degrees, engineering degrees, law degrees, and other Ph. D.s are the most useful of the degrees since they do lead into career fields. The main reason why I avoid them however, is that such degrees make your college into a trade school, and often narrow the focus of your mind to your trade and not much else. I like to keep my horizons more broadened.
It doesnt really matter though if college doesnt help you in a career that much. In our capitalistic society the commonplace belief is that you better damn well get that degree or somebody else will, and there goes your future. It is valuable, just not in the ways that it is commonly associated with.
deep!
ReplyDeletehaha thanks
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