New Thoughts on the Old School

Getting into college has been an article of faith for generations. But the world of work is changing very rapidly.  Dr. Susan Quattrociocchi asks how can we continue to tell our children to go to college to get a college job when only 23%  of all  jobs are college jobs?  Nick Vander Puy  of Superior Broadcast Network visits with "Dr. Q." click here for live stream broadcast

 Dr. Q Rethinking College

Dr. Q advises we should broaden our view of education to develop more skills because the usual route to a four year education doesn’t necessarily lead to more jobs or happiness.

 

Getting into college has been an article of faith for generations. But the world is changing, very rapidly. Major shifts in population, education,  occupations, and earning complicate the world of work. A nationally known advisor Dr. Susan Quatra Show Key says this makes  fresh, innovative approaches necessary for career planning. What’s needed Dr. Q says  is a more comprehensive, complex message based on a student’s own needs and skills rather than “getting into the right college.” Nick Vander Puy from the Superior Broadcast Network interviewed Dr. Q during a recent job fair at Lakeland Union High School in Minocqua.

 

After World War Two millions of soldiers returning from the war went to school with government support on the GI Bill.  The country moved towards prosperity.  Dr. Q says going to college, back then, made some sense.

 

“And therefore it seemed like the way you got an income raise and enter the professional class. But the fact is only eight per cent by even 1975 of people had a college degree and fifteen per cent of the jobs needed them. So it did make sense.  But now thirty per cent of the population   that either has a AA, or BA, or beyond and only about thirty per cent of the jobs require them.  So now there’s not near the guarantee That’s one reason.  No. two, most of the people who design education, have a degree, and they value education, and they value the degree, and since we’re a very tribal people and we don’t know people who build houses, plumbers, who work in the trades, so we don’t value those jobs, we don’t promote them.”

 

When you ask young people  today what they want to be when they grow up, many say professional athlete, doctor, or lawyer.  These career plans come from  T V, where most people, if they work at all, do this type work.  In reality, less than one percent of the population are employed in these jobs.  Actually, most jobs in society do not require a four year college degree.  Dr. Q says technical skills are more important.

 

“In many, many areas of the country  we are importing skilled labors from eastern Europe because we can not get our children to go into those jobs.  In Chicago they’ve brought in tens of thousands of carpenters to do the building, while our kids get a BA in psychology and end up selling coffee in Starbucks.”

 

And yet, Dr. Q says many parents still assume that the only way to have a meaningful life is to get a four year degree, and then a Masters.  Even though people who keep us fed, clothed, heated, and cooled, and protected, are just as valuable.  Dr. Q wants some parents to confront this bias.

 

“But we judge people;  you look at somebody who’s fixing a lawn mower, or a secretary sitting at her desk, and we judge them, unconsciously, you admit it, you do, but when you talk with them you find they’re reading Kant, doing poetry, they are painting, they are out there doing valuable work in their community, but we have an enormous bias towards people with a college degree, which is totally unfounded,  think what we’re telling kids, you have a college degree you’re a good person. We should judge them on their character, not their degrees.”

 

And, of course, this is the time of year when some parents compete about their children getting into the best schools and getting the best scholarships.

 

“Parents are now using college as bragging rights, and they’re using it to say whether they’re a worthwhile parent, when in fact you want to know whether you’re a worthwhile parent, tell me what kind of child you’ve raised, are they good, are they caring, are they kind?”

 

Dr. Q says going to college isn’t the only way to get an education.  There are still public libraries in this country.  As well as the Internet.

 

“We have a bias towards a degree when in fact the world of work has changed.  That doesn’t mean as an education it isn’t valuable.  But I tell parents you want to have your children have a liberal education, have them read liberally.”

 

There’s a spiritual aspect to these questions, as well. In her book “Living, Learning, and Earning in America” Dr. Q quotes a contemporary theologian Frederich Buechner.  He  says, 

 

“Child, the place God calls you is the place where your deep gladness and the world's deep hunger meet." 

 

Dr. Q concludes.

 

“Ah, to parents out there  I’d say, stop worrying about the college they’re going to go to.  Go home and watch what they love to do, tell them that’s a talent, tell them it makes a huge difference in people’s lives, help them figure out how to use that talent, get them connected to community, get them a mentor,  and then when they know all of that look at their training or education they need, and don’t judge them by degree but by their character.”

 

I’m Nick Vander Puy for the Superior Broadcast Network

 

To contact Dr. Q,  email  sussanq@aol.com

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