Dead on

"There is one good reason to go to school:  You want to do something that needs specific skills.  That's it.  Anything else is a hobby.  And going to university while you decide what you want to do is like skipping your skydiving lesson because you want to figure out the parachute during free fall."

Could not agree more.  This gem is from the daily essay section of The Globe and Mail.  'Breaking the education habit' (Actually, "education" should read "educational", but I digress.)    Penned by someone called Dave Jorgensen, that boy can write.  He may have wasted years in university, but he obviously learned to master his native tongue, something one never gets in high school.  I have submitted three essays to The Globe, but have yet to have one published.  Oh well, I live in hope. 

But back to Mr. Jorgensen.  "Forget about going to university unless you want to be a doctor, lawyer, engineer, dentist or architect," I used to tell my kids when they were pondering degrees in psychology or political science or sociology or history or English or philosophy.  All fun courses, but useless in finding employment.  "University is a huge waste of time that doesn't make any sense when you stop to think about it," the author goes on. 

"Years ago I worked in a fast food restaurant with a bunch of people who hated working in a fast food restaurant, he goes on.  "I was in university, but had switched my major from psychology to sociology to history, which is to say from useless to pointless to aimless."  What a marvellous turn-of-phrase this guy possesses.  "I'm part of the 'millennial' generation and we love going to school.  If we get a flat tire, our first response is to take out a student loan to get a masters degree in Flat Tire Theory.  What a perfect description of the eternal student today.

Universities are completely bogus institutions which in no way equip students to find a job in the "real" world.  All those professors with tenure contribute absolutely nothing to the progress of society and all to the painful detriment of our children. 

Personally, I got one of those "useless" degrees.  I chose English because I wanted to be a writer, but my degree didn't get me a job as a writer, my skill as a writer did.  Don't get me wrong, I have no regrets about my English degree, but my "jobs" were all a result of personal and proven skill at my craft -- not because I read 250 books a year and studied Chaucer.