Re: Door Slamming/Question

[csjhs@eiu.edu (Jeanne H. Simpson)]

Steve 

I don't know what to think college educations are for, frankly.  I used to
agree with your position.  And I have a degree, an MA in history, which
apparently has no direct application anywhere, though it has assisted me
indirectly over and over.  However, I worry daily about my daughter, who
has an excellent liberal arts education and who has had polecat hell
finding any sort of a decent job. She types and knows about computers too.
And there are days when I think of the pots of money spent on that fine
education and just want to scream that no one out there values it. Just
exactly why does everyone want an education if not to make their lives
better?  And doesn't better mean better income?  Don't you want to earn
money commensurate with your education?  I do.  Frankly, I am
relinquishing my notions of an education being for "more than just job
training."  The kid with a two-year technical certificate can get a job at
$11 an hour, while the kid with a fine liberal arts university degree and
so on stands in the unemployment line.  If I had it to do over, I would
not talk like a university professor to my kids and said any folderol
about liberal educations--I'd have said, by gum, take an accounting course.

Jeanne Simpson
csjhs@eiu.edu