Quote Originally Posted by marct View Post
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Honestly, I don't think it's an attach on higher education but, rather, an attack on credentialism. I certainly agree with Presley that college isn't for everyone, at least if that is modified to "right now". I have had to many 1st year students (I think you folks south of the border call them "freshmen" ) who a) had no idea why they were there, b) had no interest at all in being there, and c) had no idea what to do now that they were there.
However that appears to be true here in the US -- in spades. I took a couple of courses at a local University as an auditing adult a couple of years ago and spent a lot of time talking to the other far, far younger students. I was impressed by the innate decency and common sense of most and the absolute cluelessness of many at what they wanted out of college or what they were going to do afterwards. There were, of course, exceptions but my impression was that about 80% were there solely because they thought they were supposed to be...

I think that creping credentialism (meaning substituting a credential for an actual test and training) is one of the worst things about modern society. Would someone please tel me why it is necessary to have a BA in order to work at a coffee shop (no sierra, that's a required credential at some Canadian coffee shops). I know how it all came about, I just think it is a marker of an increasingly sick society.
Marc
My perception is that it occurred here due to two factors; the first being that the Baby Boomer parents wanted their kids to have better opportunities than they believed they had and sent the kids off to get what was here and then a fairly inexpensive further education.

They believed that necessary because in the late fifties, we started dumbing down the High Schools. Confronted with typical post pubescent angst and rebelliousness, the educational milieu here decided to accommodate instead channeling that and forcing the kids to study and develop rudimentary skills.

As was pointed out up thread, the High Schools thus focused on college prep and anyone who didn't wish to pursue that course was left to founder. So just as the Army decided that a High School completion indicated an ability to finish a task, the commercial world decided that a Degree was an even better indicator of capability.

All those factors combined to effectively set a new and unnecessary norm and flood the market; todays degree is yesteryears diploma and we're all worse off for it. I suspect that soon a Masters will be required for the Coffee Shop...