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Now that we have doubled the number of young people arttending college, a diploma cannot even guarantee a job. The most charirable conclusion we can reach is that college probably has very little, if any, effect on people and things at all. Today, the false premises are easv to see:
First,college doesn't make people intelligent, ambitious, happy or liberal. It's the other way around. Intelligent, ambitious, happy, liberal people are arttracted to higher education in the first place.
Second,college can't claim much credit for the learning experiences that really change students while theyare there. Jobs, history, and most of all. the sheer passage of time, have as big an impact as anything even indirectly related to the campus.
Third, colleges have changed so radically that a freshman entering in the fall or 1974 can't be sure to gain even the limited value research studies assigned to colleges in the 60s. The sheer size of undergraduate campuses of the 1970s makes college even less stimulating now than it was 10 years ago. Today even motivated students are disappointed with their college courses and professors.
Finally,a college diploma no longer opens as many vocational doors.Employers are beginning to realize thatwhen they pay cxtra for someone with a diploma, they are paying only for an empty credential. The fact is that most of the work for which employers now expect college training is now or has been capably done in the past by people without higher education.
College, then, may be a good place for those few young people who are really drawn to academic work. who would rather read than eat, but it has become too expensive, in money, time, and intellectual effort to serve as a holding pen for large numbers of our young. We ought to make it possible for those reluctant, unhappy students to find alternative ways of growing up, and more realistic preparation for the years ahead.
