We Need Alternatives to College – Finally We’re Talking About It

Today I read the cover story of Newsweek titled Is College a Lousy Investment? by Megan McArdle and I was jumping up and down with joy that this public discussion is finally starting to see some widespread traction. It’s a discussion we need to have.

The default assumption that college is the correct path for every high school student needs to be challenged. For too long the college degree has been held up as the gold standard to which every high school student must aspire. And that’s bad social policy.

Every human being is different. Every student is different. People do not all learn in the same ways and for classroom-based instruction to be considered the only way someone can gain knowledge, skills and competencies is to doom a percentage of our population to always feeling less than their college educated counterparts. It also likely dooms some high school students to lives of jobs and careers that aren’t nearly as satisfying and useful to society.

Even for those students for whom college is a good path, we still need to rethink how we empower that educational opportunity. It now often costs far too much to be considered a viable option, let alone a good investment from an employment perspective. We need to figure out how to enable students to receive a quality education without the costs and subsequent debt that saddles many of them with decades of financial challenges.

At the same time I was reading McArdle’s Newsweek cover story, I also stumbled upon a news alert that the European Commission has issued the recommendation that their member states should set up national systems for the validation of non-formal and informal learning so as to improve recognition of the skills and competences gained outside school or university, and do so by 2015.

Wow. All I could think when I read about this was how big of a deal this actually is. For the first time, to the best of my knowledge, a large governing body (even though advisory in this case) was suggesting that we must acknowledge and give credit for learning that takes place outside of the college classroom. Again, I was giddy reading this because this is also a public discussion that’s needed to take place for a long time. My hope is that at least some European member states adopt this recommendation and implement guidelines backed up with legislation that requires employers and higher educational institutions to officially recognize the learning that so many of us gain outside of the classroom. I also hope the European Commission’s suggestions trickle over into American society because we need the same initiative to take place here.

All of this makes me very happy. I’ve been touting the need to have these discussions a lot over the past few years and it’s heartening to see this starting to take place.

What are your thoughts about all of this?