The Gary North Educational Alternative
The $1 million advantage of college education has slipped away. Now that anyone with brains can get an MIT education online for no cost, paying 30K to 50K a year at a private university for a second rate indoctrination makes no sense -- for parents or their children.
The sad fact is this: most parents don't care about education. They care about accreditation......Parents seek union cards for their children. But there are so many kids with union cards today that the advantage has disappeared.What a person needs to know to succeed can be slippery in an age of rapid change. Being smart helps, as does being determined, and trustworthy. Who you know is always important, and should be factored into decision-making. Having parents who make sure the critical developmental windows are not squandered is particularly important.
What should a wise parent do? Keep the child home and away from the bureaucrats. Get the child apprenticed to a local businessman. Have the child quiz out of the entire B.A.
Add an incentive. The child gets $50,000 in cash – or half the total cost of college – as a graduation present. The child pays for his/her college education. The parent saves a bundle, especially considering how many students drop out. The child gets starting capital. Use it for grad school. Use it for starting a business. Use it for down payments on a few repossessed houses.
Meanwhile, Podunk College gets nothing. This is the way it ought to be until it offers something educationally unique and worth the extra money, or else offers its existing run-of-the mill program on-line for a third of the money that it charges today.
Private, campus-based, wildly overpriced colleges with undistinguished academic programs will survive, but only a handful of them will prosper. They function today as expensive marital matchmaking services. There are cheaper ways to marry off your children. They can to use one of these on-line dating services. _GaryNorth
Other than that, make sure you or your children develop flexibility and a healthy sense of opportunism. You and they will need it.
Update 21Aug09: More on the private university bubble
Labels: University
posted by al fin at 3:52 pm
3 Comments:
Dear Al,
I agree totally. My children are 7 and 9 years old and will not go to college in its current state.
Please check out this blog by a economics professor. He has excellent charts showing some of the reasons universities are in so much trouble.
Do'h here's the link:
http://mjperry.blogspot.com/
I tell my son everyday, education is about learning, not about getting a piece of paper that says you know something.
I knew a retiring teacher who told me about a student who failed his biology class. Her parents wanted the grade changed and he was done holding his peace. He asked what grade they would like, A, B, C, or D? He said that he would fill in any grade they wanted and it wouldn't change the fact that she didn't know anything.
I certainly understand wanting to go to a university to make contacts or get the right pedigree, but it makes little difference if you don't actually have a marketable skill and your family's friends can't just give you a job.
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