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Casper College Geomorphology class, field trip, 1983.
As everyone surely knows, the President recently proposed that the Federal government should fund two years at a community college for every American. I imagine that this will have some qualifiers, such as you need to be qualified by having a high school degree or a GED, and you can't be 51 years old, but that's the general idea.
As folks here know, or no doubt suspect, I read things quickly which means I can read a lot, and of the things I've been reading a lot of is criticism of this idea. I've frankly been surprised by some of the quarters I've seen that criticism coming from. I understand a general conservative opposition to it, based on the view that Federal funding of many things is out of control and needs to be reigned in, but I've also been surprised, for example, in reading the comments by people who are what I'd regard as religious conservatives, or social conservatives, who are, in some cases, extremely worked up about this, as I'd otherwise suspect that this proposal fits in with their greater social views.
Well, let me note that where I live it basically doesn't matter, as here in Republican Wyoming, bastion of conservatism and free enterprise, we already fund college and even university for our resident high school graduates. On this one, we're as socialist as can be. Drag out the red banner Wyoming!
Now, I'm not criticizing my native land, which I truly love. I think this is a good thing. I only note that as if this fails, it doesn't impact the people I know. We're already on board with this one, here.
But I also point it out because, living in a state that's adopted this, to use some of our oil largess (which is now declining, of course) I've seen it up close and personal. This didn't exist back in when I was a young college student. At that time, there was only one state institution that was funding college education, and that state entity was:
Me, in 1986. I'd just graduated from University when this photo was taken in South Korea. Being in the Guard meant that I qualified for tuition assistance, and they even sometimes paid for my books.
The National Guard.
Yes, the Wyoming Army National Guard and Air National Guard provided tuition assistance to its troops, and if well funded, they even provided funds for books. And of course, you also got a monthly paycheck.
Of course, you had to do something in return, which was agree to be shot at, if need be. But, I did it, and I frankly really liked it. One of the big mistakes I've made in my life was dropping out of the Guard when my enlistment was up. I wish I hadn't, and had kept on and done twenty. But that's water under the bridge now.
Now, of course, a person who was looking for college cash wouldn't need to consider the Guard as Wyoming will pay.
Okay, well so what? Well, frankly, the state helping to educate its young is one of the best things that this state does. Our economy is cyclical, and we're heading into a bust. When the photo above was taken, I was a Sergeant in the Army National Guard. I was also the holder of a Bachelor in Science in geology and couldn't find a job as we were in a bust. You could argue that I'd panned unwisely, but I"d also note that my Guard unit was full of men who were unemployed from the oilfield. Their life was tougher, as their jobs were gone, and the Guard was helping them hold on. Indeed, at that time our Guard unit was a collection of middle aged Vietnam veterans, a tough, intelligent, and lively bunch of men who, in some instances, had fallen on hard times. If we had to fight, it was comforting to know that a lot of those men had indeed fought before, and they were pretty experienced fellows.
Point being, however, is that even back in 1986 having an education at least got you somewhere, in a state that was having a depression. I went on to law school, and after graduating in 1990, I've never been out of work. I'm not rich, and I never will be, but without my education, I'd be in a hard spot for sure. I'd probably have had to leave the state in the 80s to look for work elsewhere, which many people did. And right now, many people are probably about to do.
The big difference between then and now, quite frankly, is that in 1986 there were still jobs in the US for men who had just a high school degree. Getting into the Army was pretty easy in 86, as we had a big Army, and Navy, and Air Force. You could get into police work with an Army discharge. You could work for the Fire Department with a high school diploma, if you could get in. And nationwide there were still jobs that didn't require much more than a high school diploma. Here, in town, you could work for one of the three refineries we then had, for example.
Well, those jobs have really evaporated for the most part, the recent batch of oilfield jobs notwithstanding. Now, in this country, without some post high school education, you're going to work a service job and that's the way it is. And it's not going to pay well.
Indeed, even all the old jobs that remain, that didn't require post high school training, now do. There's certification for everything. And even jobs like the police department's now require at least a two year degree. You need an education, young man (or woman) if you don't want to be stuck working at the convenience store.
Our international competitors already know this. In Canada, the government already funds what amounts to two years of post high school study. A German college of mine keeps urging my son to look at Germany as a place to study, as four years, he says, would be gratis. We live in a competitive world, and we have to decide if we want a first world workforce, or a third world one. And I mean third world. Already the third world is coming up, and education to the high school level isn't a rare thing there anymore.
So this is a direction I feel we should go in, and we probably need to. Yes, I know its expensive, as much as $60,000,000,000 over a decade, but then I also know that this fiscal year the United States will spend $337,000,000 on our small fleet of F35 fighters. The two are not, of course, analogous, and we are constantly in debt, but a nation that feels that it can spend the way we do on all sort of things, can invest presumably in education.
But if we do so, and we should, there are of course some things to keep in mind.
The nature of Community Colleges.
It's important to keep in mind here that the proposal isn't to fund "a college education", but rather to fund two years at community college. It's easy for some to confuse the two, and they tend to get confused.
The Tom Hanks op ed linked in below does a really good job of describing community college, and what community colleges are about. Colleges aren't universities, for one thing, and that's important to keep in mind. Indeed, universities are technically made up of colleges, such as the College of Arts and Sciences or the College of Education, or the College of Engineering, or the College of Law. Good community colleges (and there are good and bad) typically have the first two years for most widely held bachelors degrees, so you can go on to a four year school from there, but they also have a lot of programs that have taken the place of trade schools. Casper College, for example, has a welding program, a truck driving program and a diesel mechanics program, none of which the University of Wyoming do.
That's significant, as it means that a person who isn't really seeking a four year degree can still get the certification that is necessary for them to pursue a decent job, which might otherwise be difficult to get, particularly once they're out of school and wish to start working.
But frankly another aspect of the community college is that it flat out allows a lot of people to get a start who just couldn't otherwise, and that too is very significant.
It's a really popular idea in our culture to speak of people "leaving for college" as if that's a right of passage. Even movies tap into it, such as American Graffiti. But that model is a bit obsolete and was never fully accurate. The truth is that the first few years after high school can be really tough. By and large, a lot of people have no idea what they are going to do in life, and they have a vague sense that going to university will give them direction. Often it really doesn't. The story of somebody going to school and failing nearly immediately is a pretty common one. A lot of those people never make it back. Community colleges do a much better job with many people in this stage of their lives than universities do.
To include me.
I hadn't intended to go to Casper College, like I did. I had intended to go to the University of Wyoming and I enrolled there. I changed my mind when I went down to UW for an orientation and looked around and felt so out of sorts, I just gave up on that plan then and there.
I had planned on going to UW as they had a good geology department, my intended (and actual) major, and they had college ROTC. At that point in time, I had a vague plan of taking ROTC and getting a commission in the Army, serving as an officer for a couple of years, and then deciding what I would do post that.
As it happened, I came back and enrolled in Casper College, and its a good thing I did.
For one thing, at CC I found that I had to make up nearly an entire high school career in mathematics that I'd managed to get through high school without taking. I did that in less than a semester, but I doubt very much that if I'd gone to UW I would have been successful at that crash remedial work. And living at home while I was going to CC for two years let me really get into college, which I wasn't too sure about at first.
Indeed, that two years stands as two of the best of my life in some ways. I lived at home and had low expenses but worked at CC at the same time, and I'd joined the Guard (to make up for my delay in entering ROTC). I had enough cash, therefore, to get by, without really needing much. I liked the course work and when I wasn't in school or studying I was hunting. I was sort of living the life, and knew it.
I did end up going to UW after graduating from Casper College, and even at that my introduction to US's geology department was really a smooth one, but I did fine. I doubt, however, that I would have made it had I just went straight to US. I never did enter ROTC, finding that my time as a NCO in the Guard answered the questions I had about service life, or maybe just satisfied my curiosity about the Army, or maybe the combined experience in general told me something about myself, so I lost interest in doing that.
At any rate, that worked for me.
One thing, however, I do want to note is that I"m not saying, and would not say, that going to college means you'll have a happy life. I also think that too often education is confused with happiness. Indeed, I think people confuse monetary success with happiness, and they aren't the same. A good education, if truly a good one, does broaden a person's perspective and that makes a difference, but all too often modern educations really aren't all that broad. And some of those educations aren't useful, which is a problem in and of itself. As university educations have become increasingly common, they've become devalued by becoming easier in some instances, and some majors are, frankly, worthless. So poor planning and unrealistic goals can lead to an expensive four years that doesn't translate into anything.
Which isn't to say that for most people, some college isn't a good thing.
And in the modern world, most nations recognize that and do something about it. We have to too, if we wish to continue to be competitive. That doesn't mean that everyone needs a four year degree, or that even everyone should avail themselves of the two year opportunity. But making it available may be something that becomes increasingly critical in the world of the very near future.
But if we do so, and we should, there are of course some things to keep in mind.
The nature of Community Colleges.
It's important to keep in mind here that the proposal isn't to fund "a college education", but rather to fund two years at community college. It's easy for some to confuse the two, and they tend to get confused.
The Tom Hanks op ed linked in below does a really good job of describing community college, and what community colleges are about. Colleges aren't universities, for one thing, and that's important to keep in mind. Indeed, universities are technically made up of colleges, such as the College of Arts and Sciences or the College of Education, or the College of Engineering, or the College of Law. Good community colleges (and there are good and bad) typically have the first two years for most widely held bachelors degrees, so you can go on to a four year school from there, but they also have a lot of programs that have taken the place of trade schools. Casper College, for example, has a welding program, a truck driving program and a diesel mechanics program, none of which the University of Wyoming do.
That's significant, as it means that a person who isn't really seeking a four year degree can still get the certification that is necessary for them to pursue a decent job, which might otherwise be difficult to get, particularly once they're out of school and wish to start working.
But frankly another aspect of the community college is that it flat out allows a lot of people to get a start who just couldn't otherwise, and that too is very significant.
It's a really popular idea in our culture to speak of people "leaving for college" as if that's a right of passage. Even movies tap into it, such as American Graffiti. But that model is a bit obsolete and was never fully accurate. The truth is that the first few years after high school can be really tough. By and large, a lot of people have no idea what they are going to do in life, and they have a vague sense that going to university will give them direction. Often it really doesn't. The story of somebody going to school and failing nearly immediately is a pretty common one. A lot of those people never make it back. Community colleges do a much better job with many people in this stage of their lives than universities do.
To include me.
I hadn't intended to go to Casper College, like I did. I had intended to go to the University of Wyoming and I enrolled there. I changed my mind when I went down to UW for an orientation and looked around and felt so out of sorts, I just gave up on that plan then and there.
I had planned on going to UW as they had a good geology department, my intended (and actual) major, and they had college ROTC. At that point in time, I had a vague plan of taking ROTC and getting a commission in the Army, serving as an officer for a couple of years, and then deciding what I would do post that.
As it happened, I came back and enrolled in Casper College, and its a good thing I did.
For one thing, at CC I found that I had to make up nearly an entire high school career in mathematics that I'd managed to get through high school without taking. I did that in less than a semester, but I doubt very much that if I'd gone to UW I would have been successful at that crash remedial work. And living at home while I was going to CC for two years let me really get into college, which I wasn't too sure about at first.
Indeed, that two years stands as two of the best of my life in some ways. I lived at home and had low expenses but worked at CC at the same time, and I'd joined the Guard (to make up for my delay in entering ROTC). I had enough cash, therefore, to get by, without really needing much. I liked the course work and when I wasn't in school or studying I was hunting. I was sort of living the life, and knew it.
One of the geology classrooms at the University of Wyoming, in the 1980s.
I did end up going to UW after graduating from Casper College, and even at that my introduction to US's geology department was really a smooth one, but I did fine. I doubt, however, that I would have made it had I just went straight to US. I never did enter ROTC, finding that my time as a NCO in the Guard answered the questions I had about service life, or maybe just satisfied my curiosity about the Army, or maybe the combined experience in general told me something about myself, so I lost interest in doing that.
At any rate, that worked for me.
One thing, however, I do want to note is that I"m not saying, and would not say, that going to college means you'll have a happy life. I also think that too often education is confused with happiness. Indeed, I think people confuse monetary success with happiness, and they aren't the same. A good education, if truly a good one, does broaden a person's perspective and that makes a difference, but all too often modern educations really aren't all that broad. And some of those educations aren't useful, which is a problem in and of itself. As university educations have become increasingly common, they've become devalued by becoming easier in some instances, and some majors are, frankly, worthless. So poor planning and unrealistic goals can lead to an expensive four years that doesn't translate into anything.
Which isn't to say that for most people, some college isn't a good thing.
And in the modern world, most nations recognize that and do something about it. We have to too, if we wish to continue to be competitive. That doesn't mean that everyone needs a four year degree, or that even everyone should avail themselves of the two year opportunity. But making it available may be something that becomes increasingly critical in the world of the very near future.
1 comment:
Thank you for your service! For me, personally,my college years were among the happiest of my life. As it turned out, college did very little for me in practical terms, but it did a huge amount in terms of opening my mind and training me to think analytically. I majored in philosophy but did not go into graduate school in the subject, as it turned out. (That is the only regular career path for a philosophy major--to get a Ph.D. and teach the subject.) Yet I had no regrets at having majored in such an impractical subject. It taught me some essential things that, believe it or not, have helped me in everyday life.
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