Not Retiring

[CP87]

You just beat me to the punch I was going to post something very similar. I’m a GenXer and you were almost expected to go to a 4-year college and if you didn’t, you felt that “less than” societal stigma that @CP87 was talking about. I grew up in an era where community college was referred to as “glorified high school”. That is definitely not the case now.


That stigma is still there, but as you stated, it has been fading for a while now. Baby boomers, who went to college thinking they would come out and be able to change the world are dead or really, really old. GenXers started to re-think the idea of college with their own children, and as you stated, it has completely changed now.

On the flip side, more and more jobs REQUIRE a 4-year degree, even if it doesn't really make sense as a requirement. For some jobs, the 4-year degree makes sense because the educational program teaches them specifically how to do the job (nursing, accounting, teaching, engineering).

But outside of that fairly narrow band of occupational outcomes, the degree just doesn't matter, the skillset and the character matter. Employers just use the degree as a filter to narrow down the pool and make their search easier. Most, but not all, students that have earned a 4-year degree will have adequate learning, problem-solving, and communication skills, and enough maturity to get through 4 years of college without going off the rails.

As employers are having a harder time filling open positions, they are starting to pull back on some of the requirements for a 4-year degree.

 

[JoeyLabasForPresident]

I do not, actually. Somebody is trying to steal my identity?

Apparently, yeah. LOL. Pretty prolific poster there. Or at least I thought so. Maybe I am thinking of a different message board? Or just a different poster entirely. Who knows. Like I said, I just occasionally lurk there.

 

[CP87]

On the flip side, more and more jobs REQUIRE a 4-year degree, even if it doesn't really make sense as a requirement. For some jobs, the 4-year degree makes sense because the educational program teaches them specifically how to do the job (nursing, accounting, teaching, engineering).

But outside of that fairly narrow band of occupational outcomes, the degree just doesn't matter, the skillset and the character matter. Employers just use the degree as a filter to narrow down the pool and make their search easier. Most, but not all, students that have earned a 4-year degree will have adequate learning, problem-solving, and communication skills, and enough maturity to get through 4 years of college without going off the rails.

As employers are having a harder time filling open positions, they are starting to pull back on some of the requirements for a 4-year degree.

I just taught a class this morning (Human Physiology)...about 70 women, 6 guys. The gender gap has really exploded over the last 5 years. We were always about 60/40 women to men, now we probably average almost 75/25 across our classes.

 

[HuckFinn]

Happy they are catching up.

 

[trj]

On the flip side, more and more jobs REQUIRE a 4-year degree, even if it doesn't really make sense as a requirement. For some jobs, the 4-year degree makes sense because the educational program teaches them specifically how to do the job (nursing, accounting, teaching, engineering).

But outside of that fairly narrow band of occupational outcomes, the degree just doesn't matter, the skillset and the character matter. Employers just use the degree as a filter to narrow down the pool and make their search easier. Most, but not all, students that have earned a 4-year degree will have adequate learning, problem-solving, and communication skills, and enough maturity to get through 4 years of college without going off the rails.

As employers are having a harder time filling open positions, they are starting to pull back on some of the requirements for a 4-year degree.

I will be the left leaning hippie in this thread. What do you do with Liberal Arts? What do you do with young people that don’t have the analytical mind or the mechanical aptitude to do certain things? I 1000% get the parent that doesn’t want to refinance their mortgage to pay for their kids, $150,000 dance degree.

You are a professor at a public university. What would you suggest kids do, if they are marginal students and have marginal test scores?

 

[Zstatman]

The pandemic really hurt a lot of young people. They basically lost a year of school, if not more. They don't want to go to school, they don't really want to work. Mom and dad cut them off and they are lost. Sad, I knnow several families in this situation.

 

[CP87]

I will be the left leaning hippie in this thread. What do you do with Liberal Arts? What do you do with young people that don’t have the analytical mind or the mechanical aptitude to do certain things? I 1000% get the parent that doesn’t want to refinance their mortgage to pay for their kids, $150,000 dance degree.

You are a professor at a public university. What would you suggest kids do, if they are marginal students and have marginal test scores?

Good questions, and I have many thoughts. But, they are going to have to be saved for another day

 

[NorthKCHawk]

The pandemic really hurt a lot of young people. They basically lost a year of school, if not more. They don't want to go to school, they don't really want to work. Mom and dad cut them off and they are lost. Sad, I knnow several families in this situation.

Raising 5 Gen Z kids, my take is that they don't want to work as hard as their parents and grandparents, but they also don't value materialistic things as much as I/we do. I have a very nice house and when I explain to them that I got this nice house by working my ass off, they respond that they don't need a house this nice. I do appreciate the focus they have on experiences, travel, friends, and lifestyle. If you value those things, I think that is great, but it doesn't leave much room to have a family, which a couple of my kids say they don't want anyway. Times and philosophies are changing for sure.

 

[Chickenlounge]

Raising 5 Gen Z kids, my take is that they don't want to work as hard as their parents and grandparents, but they also don't value materialistic things as much as I/we do. I have a very nice house and when I explain to them that I got this nice house by working my ass off, they respond that they don't need a house this nice. I do appreciate the focus they have on experiences, travel, friends, and lifestyle. If you value those things, I think that is great, but it doesn't leave much room to have a family, which a couple of my kids say they don't want anyway. Times and philosophies are changing for sure.

Agreed, my 3 kids couldn't care less about living in a fancy house. They want to live comfortably and drive a reliable car. They thrift almost all of their clothes. They abhor 'fast fashion'. They want to have a job that doesn't stress them out. They see what a stressful job does to me and I don't think they like it. Basically they want to work to live, not live to work. It's not that they don't want to work, they just don't want to work a shit job for shit wages to help some CEO buy his third yacht.

I'm all for them charting their own path.

 

[HuckFinn]

I will be the left leaning hippie in this thread. What do you do with Liberal Arts? What do you do with young people that don’t have the analytical mind or the mechanical aptitude to do certain things? I 1000% get the parent that doesn’t want to refinance their mortgage to pay for their kids, $150,000 dance degree.

You are a professor at a public university. What would you suggest kids do, if they are marginal students and have marginal test scores?

Maybe, just maybe, a kid who gets a degree in liberal arts will know better than to vote for Dump. We have apparently forgotten that the creation of the universal public school system decades ago was to ensure an educated population required to operate a successful democracy. The university system in the US is the best in the world, according to all data. To be clear, as a public school administrator for 30 years, I championed our superior tech colleges here in Wisconsin for students.

 

[HuckFinn]

Raising 5 Gen Z kids, my take is that they don't want to work as hard as their parents and grandparents, but they also don't value materialistic things as much as I/we do. I have a very nice house and when I explain to them that I got this nice house by working my ass off, they respond that they don't need a house this nice. I do appreciate the focus they have on experiences, travel, friends, and lifestyle. If you value those things, I think that is great, but it doesn't leave much room to have a family, which a couple of my kids say they don't want anyway. Times and philosophies are changing for sure.

Interesting take.

 

[HuckFinn]

Raising 5 Gen Z kids, my take is that they don't want to work as hard as their parents and grandparents, but they also don't value materialistic things as much as I/we do. I have a very nice house and when I explain to them that I got this nice house by working my ass off, they respond that they don't need a house this nice. I do appreciate the focus they have on experiences, travel, friends, and lifestyle. If you value those things, I think that is great, but it doesn't leave much room to have a family, which a couple of my kids say they don't want anyway. Times and philosophies are changing for sure.

Interesting take.

Agreed, my 3 kids couldn't care less about living in a fancy house. They want to live comfortably and drive a reliable car. They thrift almost all of their clothes. They abhor 'fast fashion'. They want to have a job that doesn't stress them out. They see what a stressful job does to me and I don't think they like it. Basically they want to work to live, not live to work. It's not that they don't want to work, they just don't want to work a shit job for shit wages to help some CEO buy his third yacht.

I'm all for them charting their own path.

Good for you!