Teaching teaching to teachers about teaching teaching to teachers

“Those who can, do – those who can’t, teach.” – H. L. Mencken

I am a physical education teacher, which is how I pay some of the bills each and every month. Bills, that a friend of mine – Uncle Sharky – pointed out, were actually largesse. Several months ago, I told him that I was poor, indebted and did not live a life of luxury. Retorting back, he mentioned something to the effect: “Ahh, but you goto college, which is an expensive lifestyle.”

Oddly enough, I have been doing quite a bit of self-reflection as to the opportunity costs associated with my decision to pursue graduate school or college in the first place. While we are on the subject, sometime later we should practice the mental exercise of removing the entire institution of formal education from the assumptions list.

To be fair, I believe it is difficult to compare today’s Van Wilder University with the “classical” schools of Oxford or Cambridge. Nevertheless, for the school year: 2004-2005, the average tuition, fees, room and board of attending a four-year public institution: $11,354. For a four-year private institution: $27,516 (CollegeBoard).

One of the justifications for the price tag is that, in the long run, a college-educated individual would make more money than someone without said education. And since being more wealthy is A Good Thing™, efforts promoting this lifestyle should be carried out. As Neal Zupancic (a bartender!) points out, Senator Claiborne Pell legislated such an endeavor in 1972 – under the inauspicious name, a Pell Grant.

This line of reasoning strikes the French Paradox within me. The FP is the belief that essentially, drinking a glass or two of red wine throughout the day will promote healthy cardiovascular activity – in effect, you will live longer if you drink some bubbly on a regular basis. The argument in effect is, you will live longer if you drink wine. However, this is a non sequitur as the causal relationship is not directly connected.

For instance, could it also be possible that older individuals have accumulated more wealth and that some have been known to not only have an appetite for the vivacious beverage, but also: good medical care? This is similar to the classic story:

Ice cream consumption increases during the summer as does crime; therefore ice cream causes crime.

Simply substitute wine consumption and old age or college education and wealth generation for ice cream and crime.

This is not to say that there is not some chemical compound in wine (i.e. resveratrol) or alcoholic beverages that does in fact, promote a healthier cardiac system. Nor does it mean that having a college education will result in poverty. It is about a direct causal correlation.

One fallacious example found in economic policy is that of “minimum wages.” One of the arguments behind these laws is that a wage earner “deserves” at least a certain, bare minimum wage. Thus ignoring the productivity element in the equation altogether – that the reason someone earns a certain wage can be tied to their productivity within a firm. Why stop at $5.25 and not $10 or $100 per hour? We could all be rich overnight!

Value by fiat

The central underlying element to Senator Pell’s reasoning was skewed: those with college educations earned more money not because of the framed stamped and signed parchments hanging on the Living Room wall, but because they had some kind of intellectual training that gave them a competitive and productive edge over their non-educated brethren. And for the better part of 30 years, this “go to college and become rich” mentality has been unfortunately, successfully trained into the minds of several generations of not just boobus Americanus, but much of the developing and industrialized world.

Arguments regarding sub-standard educations aside, the fiscal outlook of those involved in following the accredited institution route has been documented and demonstrated to be not so bueno, notes Christopher Westley. Not that these individuals are unsuccessful upon graduation, but that they become broke, indebted and even bankrupt — all in the pursuit of El Dorado.

A fitting end to this discussion comes in the form of The Onion, whom has a superb spin on this topic, University Implicated in Check-for-Degree Scheme:
“We have strong evidence that the University of Michigan granted academic degrees to students in exchange for hefty payments, often totaling tens of thousands of dollars,” Deputy Attorney General James B. Comey said. “In the process, thousands of graduates have emerged with degrees, but few or no skills applicable to everyday life. And many are as unprepared to enter the job market as they were when they first enrolled.”
Food for thought:
– Athletics and Education: The Union of Athletics With Educational Institutions – if you attend a Division I or II school, odds are you are subsidizing ’student-athletes’ [a misnomer] and “professional sports” through your tuition and fee charges. Just to make matters worse… right?

– Straight Talk About College Costs And Prices – commission on rising costs of tuition and the breakdown of costs.

– Edumacation: We Don’t Want None – apparently you paid for someone to get a bogus degree from a bogus institution.