Earning while Learning: A Solution to Exorbitant Costs for College
“Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself.” -John Dewey. philosopher
I went to college from 1951 to 1955, worked part-time during high school and going to college full-time. It was easier to do in those days. The work taught me great things that college did not, in manufacturing fashion design clothing. However, my college did teach me some great appreciation of Art and Literature. Living in a college dorm was only for the rich and elite, and government did not pay for college, but working did. I eventually got an apartment closer to college, to save on long travel times, and it was good, and affordable for me.
My brother, Donald Willett, also worked as a software engineer, and then attended college part-time for many years. However, college administrators had a distain for part-time learners, and would not let him go further and get a doctorate degree. In his work life, he advanced to “Quality Assurance” over software engineers. When I was working on a grant award from NSF on fashion engineering design, and asked a professor with an MIT doctorate to assist me, a battle ensued. My brother came to my rescue, showed the professor that he was wrong in my case, and my brother continued assisting me instead.
Realize that Life and Work teaches as much or more than formal education. Some quotes:
In a Boston Globe Letter to the Editor, 9/29/21. “What about education? We need to change the education system so you spend less time when you are young learning to be hyper-specialized and more in life-long learning. The jobs that will still be here will require face-to-face skills and making networks of human interactions work.” I would add, when young and not working yet you do not know what you need to know and professors who have not worked in various fields, do not know what you need to know. When working in a field you learn what you need to know, and attend classes simultaeously to get help with learning.
“University price tags topping $90k a year”, Shannon Larson, Boston Globe, March 30, 2024.
“Is a college degree worth the cost? (Boston Globe Magazine) … overall student debt stands at a near-record $1.72 trillion… survey found that the majority of Americans that said a college degree isn’t worth the cost.
“A college admission isn’t a measure of success”, Kara Baskin on Parenting, Boston Globe,
“Say no to a college they can’t afford … a student loan is ‘not a good idea”. Michelle Singletary. Boston Globe
“On student loans… Biden sets a dangerous precedent… write off $430 billion… more accurately, to transfer that debt to taxpayers … Reasonable minds can debate whether a massive cancelation of student loan debt is a sound idea or a reckless and unfair one” Jeff Jacoby, Boston Globe
In the Boston Globe, 12/12/21, Letter To te Editor, Charles H. Gessner wrote, “Even when it’s ‘free’, someone has to pay for it.
“Generationally, it was once much easier to get a college degree, affordable enough to work your way through,” Julie Reuben, a historian at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, “Students could go without gaining a lot of debt.”
Diti Kohli, Aiden Ryan and Esha Walia, Globe Staff and Globe Correspondent, April 10, 2024, “What BU’s $66,670 undergraduate tuition actually pays for, and why those who actually teach are paid little. … Where the cost of everything from labor to facilities drives tuition ever-upward, but the money does not always flow into classrooms as expected…. some of the tuition money has found its way to new buildings and flashy amenities.
“Earning while Learning” and “Life-long learning” could solve so many social and economic problems, when people get answers, while experiencing life, work and real-life problems.
Let’s stop looking up to so-called experts in universities, government, media and business. Instead, let’s look into the power of ourselves to get what learning we want and need, and evolve how we want to.
“How Experts Lose Our Trust”, by Kat Rosenfield, Boston Globe
Kat Rosenfield writes: “A combination of self-delusion and self-righteousness is a surefire way for experts to lose our trust…. the most marked decline is not in our trust in one another but trust in our institutions. Americans have lost faith: in government, in public health, in higher education, and in the media tasked with holding our leaders accountable to the truth.”
