Photo Credit: Arallyn! via Compfight
I’d love to save you save money right now. I love education, but I do sense that our system is outdated by 50-500 years. I can hardly think of anything more stifling to creativity and innovation than this strange situation.
So many people in the North America are getting advanced degrees, I’ve noticed. Have you? I see a boat load of cautionary tales in the whole matter.
First of all….Have you noticed how much advertising is directed at feeding the desire to improve one’s self through education?
It gives me pause.
An affluent country can create a whole education industry that can make little sense when pragmatic end goals are apprehended. Indeed, it already has!
It seems many diploma seekers actually don’t actually know what they want…but it’s hard to dismiss education as a waste of time. Yet, education has never be easier to get…and for free. I have a list of places. More on that in a moment…
Since the job market is horrible many are delaying entry into it or avoiding it by enrolling in a masters program, etc. This trend depreciates advanced degrees across the board, duh.
Really the industry have never been shadier since public school teachers have been required to earn a masters degree to keep their jobs. Programs spring up to meet the need and basically make the whole thing a mockery. Busy work and rigamarole replace andragogic excellence. You thought I’d say pedagogic, right? See how outdated the whole thing is…pedagogy is a medieval term. Yeah, right…so anyways…
For people who value high-quality learning and scholarship it’s an affront.
BUT Why do people enroll?
…lots of reasons:
• To add Credibility (maybe some resume fodder)
• To soothe something on the inside
• In hopes that new opportunities will open up
Though plenty of places will give you the paper you think you want…it might not give you what you are really looking for. I contend that it often won’t. (Seth Godin has hit on this too. It’s worth the read.)
The reality is that without careful consideration the results are more debt and angst than possibilities. A Masters Degree or PhD may help to land a college teaching job…except for the fact that there’s a genuine glut of people with advanced degrees and fewer jobs than ever. School budgets are being slashed. Everywhere. Don’t want to teach? Then an advanced degree is the wrong tact much of the time. This illustrates the point that system is quite broken.
If you are (or someone you know) is in or planning to enroll in an advanced degree program, remember to ask the harder questions. The why questions.
• Are you putting something off?
• Are you afraid of something?
• Do you need or want something that really isn’t about the credit hours?
In reality Success can come in numerous ways through the vehicle of technology. Times have changed.
If it’s really education that you want. That’s all cool. Free Education initiatives are underway at so many top universities, like MIT, CMU, Berkley, Tufts, Yale, Princeton, Norte Dame and others. It’s AMAZING. Check it out.
In the end it’s results and experience that give you success, not who you paid on your paper chase.
Success has a lot to do with creativity, hard work, ingenuity, and perseverance.
I hoped I’ve saved you (or someone you know) some time and $.