Back to School

Thought about it some more and I'd like to revise and extend my remarks.

If your goal in life is to be a power player in the GOP machine, then you really need to get your degree. Not for reasons of learning, understanding, paideia or self-improvement -- you can get by without all that. But you will need that degree.

As a GOP power player you will frequently be required to inform your listeners/readers/constituents/dittoheads that poverty is purely and solely a matter of personal responsibility. Poor people are lazy, stupid and immoral -- that's the general idea, although it's best not to state it so bluntly, but just to hint at it with meritocratic mythmaking.

In order to make this claim, you'll also need to be able to claim that your own wealth and ascent to power is the result of hard work and education. Your wealth and power may, in fact, be wholly an accident of inheritance, connections and cronyism. Or it may be the result of an obsequious willingness to say only what others with such IC&C want you to say. In either case, a college degree -- preferably from a Good School -- will allow you to maintain a plausible deniability. Why else do you think George W. Bush had to get an MBA from Harvard Business School? Considering his track record as a businessman (Arbusto, Harken), it clearly wasn't to learn about business.

By Good School, of course, we mean one that is "exclusive," which is to say really, really, really expensive. Too expensive for almost anyone not blessed with your inheritance, connections and cronyism. But even the most prohibitively expensive of these Good Schools recognizes the importance of meritocratic mythmaking, and they will help to preserve that myth by reserving a handful of slots for students who cannot otherwise afford their ticket prices. (These students must be portrayed as exceptionally gifted and exceptionally hard-working, but not as "exceptions," because they are the evidence that proves that anybody can get into a Good School.)

So I guess if you really want to be a GOP power player, you should forget all that idealistic mumbo-jumbo about "getting an education" and just focus on getting a degree. You're not going back to school for the same reasons as Shaquille O'Neal, or even the same reasons as Thornton Melon, you just need the sheepskin and the line on your resume.

Fortunately for you, most colleges and universities -- even the Good Schools -- are designed to accommodate "students" just like you.

Which brings us again to the most revealing fact about American higher education: the cost of auditing a class. It varies slightly from school to school, but the general rule of thumb is that the cost of auditing a class is about a third the cost of taking that class for credit. This tells you everything you need to know about how these schools perceive what it is they're selling. You can learn everything they have to teach for 1/3 the price because education isn't the main product. The main product is credit. That's what you're paying for when you go to college.

Comments

[Toby]

Actually I tend to think that auditing is cheaper because auditors don't submit any work to be marked. Marking can be extremely labour-intensive, and in some cases it probably does work out to about 2/3 of the labour a prof or TA invests in a course. (Well, in the humanities, anyway.)

[bulbul]

Admittedly, my experience with the US tertiary education is somewhat limited, but this is probably the best description of what I know if it I have ever read. Brilliant as always, Fred :o)

[Kristin]

I agree with Toby - Auditing is cheaper because the prof. doesn't have to spend money hiring a grader or TA to mark your paper, test, essay, etc, or expend the time to grade it him/herself.

But, most Profs, at least where I'm at, do still provide course materials (if any) to those auditing the class, answer e-mail questions and give auditing students tickets to whatever event the class participates in. I think this would equal the 1/3 price, otherwise, it should be free to soak up a little knowledge.

Completely agree, Fred, that "affirmative action" in the Good Schools is more rampant than at the state schools conservatives are so worried about. Cronyism is a form of affirmative action, and Bushie a prime example of its recipient.

Not sure I have a point . . . this is what grad school does to your brain

[Erick Oppeen]

While I'm the last person to say that bad luck can't/doesn't play a part in _some_ people's poverty, I get awfully sick and tired of seeing people who're in a jam through their own damnphoolishness blaming bad luck.

I have a neato-keen idea: Why not judge individual cases on their merits, and act accordingly? Naah, never happen.

[Jim]

Geez, Fred, once again you have hit the nail squarely on the head. Our colleges and universities exist not for the higher ideal of "education" or "scholarship", no, they exist to sell degrees. Which can then be peddled by the individual holders for whatever they can get...
I gotta say that you make me proud to be able to say I grew up in Plainfield. The place has hit hard times since my old man took the family outta there, but, it is still the place that produced people like you. Makes me proud.
God, I do love reading your stuff...

[bellatrys]

I have a neato-keen idea: Why not judge individual cases on their merits, and act accordingly? Naah, never happen.

And that will help understand societal trends, the problem of massive disadvantages and systems stacked against large groups of people, and counter them *how* exactly?

Oh, but the goal here is to make "bootstrapping" little turtles able to feel better about themselves and never have to think about the rest of the world outside Mr. Podsnap Dives' door, so victim-blaming *is* as crucial as ignoring the patterns of social injustice and "self-made" mythmaking...

[Andrew Smith]

I dunno. I went to Oberlin, which is not now, nor ever has been (nor hopefully ever will be) about "getting the degree."

Oberlin is about learning how to learn.

Ivy League schools? Well, I could have gotten a legacy admission (and probbably a big scholarship) to a major player in that circle, but I was not interested in prestige, or joining the old boy network, or making a career in politics. I wanted to go to a school where there were girls as well as boys. Met my wife there. Loved every minute of my four years as an Obie, and the nearly 50 years since as an Obie Alum.

And I learned how to learn.

At least a little, anyway.

[Richard Hershberger]

My experience in the University of California system some twenty years ago was that it was pretty much up to the individual to decide what to get out of the university. Many people went there for a high end vo-tech certificate. Some went there to binge drink for a few years. Some went to find a mate of the appropriate socio-economic class. I suspect that the largest group went because it was expected of them and they couldn't think of any better way to spend those four years. In all but the most egregious cases the Regents were happy to take your (or your parents') money and award you a degree at the other end.

On the other hand, if you wanted a good education there were any number of professors who were thrilled to provide it. I studied history and literature and more than a smattering of science and math. I have absolutely no complaints about the education I received there.

I also learned not to be impressed by degrees, even from prestigious schools. There may be schools where they won't give you a degree for drifting along and making your tuition payments, but I doubt there are many such institutions. The most I hope for is a school where a real education is available for those who want it.

[Nancy Lebovitz]

http://opencontent.org/ocwfinder/

is a site listing the university lectures available for free online.

[Dawn]

At the University of Michigan, it costs the same to audit a class as it does to take it for credit. Until now I thought that was standard.

[JM]

The cronyism does not start in US higher ed. It starts with the poor getting sub standard schools becuase they live in a poor district. All real US school funding is done at county and district levels, not a national one. Live in a poor district, go to a poor school, with poor teachers.

Be rich, go to private school, where they give out more A grades than in real schools.

It's so bad that people have to select a house in the right district otherwise their kids get crap schools. People even move, some times large distances, just to excape bad schools. My girlfriend is going to move 1,200 miles to a town where the public schools are better and safer than in my city, and I dont live a a bad city. (If you live in South Florida you have to move many miles before you excape the poorly funded Florida schools).

"Public School Spending Is Among the Worst in the Nation: Florida ranks near the bottom of all states--47th of 50 states--in the per capita spending on public education."
Public School Spending Has Declined: Public education spending per pupil has declined in Florida. Since 1990, per pupil spending in constant dollars has declined by 8%
Student/Teacher Ratio Is Among the Highest in the Nation: Florida ranks near the bottom (43 of 50) in the number of students for each teacher.

So my girlfriend has to move 1,200 miles to find good schools.... You have to have a basic K->12 education before you can get into the University.

Equality starts by making ALL kids go to the public high-school. That way the rich and powerfull will have their kids there too, and will understand the need for funding education. And.. Their kids will get to meet the people from the other side of the tracks and discover they are real people too, not just future maids.