The Wayward Crutch of Higher Education

The institutional financial cost of curiosity and life experimentation

Higher education has many benefits. For the students and graduates, with higher education comes more job opportunities and higher pay. For employers, they have confidence that the recently hired employee knows the ins and outs of the profession. But I see more problems with higher education than benefits, and that is a statement that makes me feel uneasy; after all, the idea is that more education individuals or societies have, the better off they are. But this is not always the case: for the benefits above one can replace higher education with years of experience and solid recommendations.

When I first started working right out of college, I held jobs in the social work arena for a few years, supporting children in need. I lived in a big town/small city, and finding work came easy. But then I moved back to my hometown of Washington DC, expecting to pick up where I left off, only to find I basically had to get a Masters in Social Work to “clean the toilets.” My three previous years of experience were all for naught. I was unwilling to go into debt, with a family already in tow, just so I could be at the bottom of the pile. I was forced to find an alternate career.

When I am not earning a living, I am making a living as a poet. Being a poet pays none of the bills, but it is satisfying in so many other levels. Early on I made a choice not to go into an MFA program. Once again, I would be putting myself into debt, and an MFA was not a Masters degree that would ever pay itself back. What I did do was teach myself how to write poetry. I read books on perfecting the craft, books one might find in an MFA program, but that I picked up at my local bookstore for a lot less.

I have been a supporter of my own decision for years. And what has been nice is I have seen more and more articles discussing MFAs and their fallacies. The argument is people with MFAs write cookie-cutter poetry; they are sardines in a literary sardine can. And I have to agree. But there is a lot of talk and not very much walk. Several years ago the editor of a well-respected poetry journal made a call to other poetry editors around the globe to be more open-minded about poets without MFAs, but based on his contributor bios, even that editor is having a hard time putting his words into practice.

And it’s not just editors accepting poems by poets without MFAs. In my job hunting, I am always open to possibilities around the area of poetry as a way to earn a living. But everywhere I look an MFA is required. I have yet to see a single exception. One can’t teach without it; one can’t even assist the teacher without it.The underlying statement is that if you don’t have a Masters, you don’t know your stuff.

I have yet to see proof of Shakespeare’s MFA degree, and he certainly got by without it.

For almost ten years, I worked for an organization that certified professionals in its industry. It is a noble organization filled with passion, and I was glad to support it. However, I was never 100% sold on the educational requirement to take the examination. And neither were some of the  professionals. It didn’t matter if you had thirty years of experience in the field; if you didn’t have the required education, you couldn’t even attempt to get its credential. I found this to be an inherently flawed system.

I have a BA in Fine Arts/Theater, and when I was in college people everywhere said, “don’t worry about your major for your career, no one cares that much about what your degree is in, just pick one.” So I did. Now, in my profession, looking for jobs is oftentimes difficult because everywhere people want a BA in the industry.

In our current economic times, it seems the thing to do is to hire people. But even as the global economy struggles, employers appear unwilling to hire unless the educational requirement is met. If an unemployed worker is willing or wants to change careers, perhaps go into Library Sciences, and there are libraries that are hiring, then all other things being equal that person should be considered for the job. But no, having a Masters in Library Sciences is a must while the high unemployment rate continues to stay the same.

The ultimate problem with higher education, what makes it a socially unjust system, is that almost by definition it requires people to go into debt, sometimes massive debt, for oftentimes so little payoff. Low- and middle-income families can’t afford it, so they take out student loans. I have already been interested in multiple career paths, can you imagine what kind of financial trouble I would be in if I had a degree in every one of those paths? And yet that is the expectation.

People don’t always know what they want to do. And yet we almost have to pay the big bucks just to see if a profession is right for us. My wife has a Masters in Health Science (International Public Health), and she has never really used it. If she turns old and gray without ever putting her degree to good use, I wouldn’t hold it against her; I am more irritated at the institutional financial cost of curiosity and life experimentation.

I don’t know the economics of higher education; private colleges and universities might just cost; but regardless whether the price of tuition is legitimate and justified, its necessity to see where the breakdown lies. Society needs to foster a higher educational system that works for everyone and advances everyone without the financial punitive measures. If a person wants to get an MFA or an MSW, that should be a personal choice not a professional necessity. The need for a Masters or Bachelor’s degree (while oftentimes hardly considering experience) only puts us in an educational straightjacket.

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–Photo: gtalan/Flickr