I have always been proud of my college and graduate education—at least I used to be. These days, as I have written previously, I have mostly become ashamed of my alma mater, Georgetown University. It has become a bastion of woke ideology just as anathematic to true education as any Ivy League school that makes the news for all the wrong reasons. Today, I rarely offer up where I went to school (unless I am writing about how bad it has become) and only reluctantly answer when asked.
Setting all of that aside, though, I worked very hard in school. I sought out every learning opportunity I could. I wanted to excel and was proud when I was able to graduate Magna Cum Laude from my undergraduate studies and Cum Laude from graduate school. But let's face facts: I also spent a lot of time partying and goofing off. When I wasn't reading or working to help pay for my tuition, I was wasting time on anything and everything I could waste time on. And, at that age, I could go without sleep for days and still be able to function, so I had a LOT of time to waste.
The majority of kids in college do. College gives kids, most of them 18-22 years old, more free time than we have ever experienced previously or (unbeknownst to us at the time) we would ever experience again. But it was all part of the process, right? We were getting out on our own for the first time, using an education to prepare ourselves for life out in the real world.
Allegedly.
The question many adolescents must face today is, does college still prepare us for anything? Does it teach us how to think critically, to problem-solve, or to interact with other people constructively? There is no one blanket answer to that question, but the more college becomes unaffordable (thanks, government-secured loans) the more kids today must ask themselves if the juice is worth the squeeze ... or if there is any juice left at all.
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One of our Twitchy favorites, @lone_rides -- also known as Dr. Strangetweet -- recently wrote a thread offering some compelling reasons why college might not be the best choice for MOST high school students, and why it is not the best choice for our society as a whole.
You think college should be free.
— Rev Dr Strangetweet (@lone_rides) November 19, 2024
I think there shouldn't be colleges.
We are not the same.
There is no question that college costs too much, ridiculously so, especially for a private school like Georgetown or the Ivy League-level universities. But it also probably shouldn't be free. Free things, as a general rule, are not valued. Students should have some skin in the game, just maybe not so much that they are completely flayed by debt for decades.
But to suggest colleges shouldn't exist at all? That piqued my interest.
People interested in becoming doctors can go to med school.
— Rev Dr Strangetweet (@lone_rides) November 19, 2024
People wanting to be a lawyer can go to law school.
But people wanting to delay adulthood by 4 years while they get plastered and indoctrinated by Communism and then leave with no usable skills should get a job.
As we delve into the thread, it is clear that Dr. Stragetweet is likely referring mostly to liberal arts universities and curricula here. And I can't argue with his assertion. What life or work skills do most liberal arts majors offer students in today's colleges? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?
As for those specialized fields, you don't actually need to go to college to attend medical school or law school, it's just accepted and assumed in society that you will. Why is that?
Medical or law schools could easily offer prospective doctors and lawyers the opportunity to complete any prerequisites for those institutions without requiring them to spend $200K-$400K on a four-year undergraduate education. Other specialized professions -- particularly in STEM fields -- could do the same.
And there are other alternatives.
Want to party on someone else's dime for 4 years? Join the armed forces.
— Rev Dr Strangetweet (@lone_rides) November 19, 2024
Want to get a gender studies degree and then not understand why you don't deserve minimum wage for making a cup of coffee? Do that on your own time.
Four years in the Armed Forces is likely to give young people a FAR more practical education for their future than a college does. They will undeniably learn marketable skills and trades while also getting an education on professionalism, discipline, ethics, honor, and the value of hard work.
But Dr. Strangetwet hits on the real devaluation of a college degree in his next tweet:
"But without college, how will the students know how to think?"
— Rev Dr Strangetweet (@lone_rides) November 19, 2024
My brother in Christ, they're dumber when they leave college.
This is the true problem with too many colleges and universities today. They no longer teach kids how to think, they teach them what to think.
It probably goes without saying, but that is not education. It is indoctrination. And no one comes out of a four-year indoctrination program smarter than when they entered it.
"The only people still voting Republicans are non-college educated whites!"
— Rev Dr Strangetweet (@lone_rides) November 19, 2024
You're welcome for us saving America from becoming a communist hellhole.
We're pretty sure non-college-educated Hispanics also might have a word or two to say about saving America.
But the bigger problem with that statement is that if college is ONLY turning out graduates who will vote for Democrats, then it only re-affirms that the schools are not teaching students, they are programming them.
You have to go to college to be taught that reality doesn't exist.
— Rev Dr Strangetweet (@lone_rides) November 19, 2024
Meanwhile, reality exists, whether or not you partake in it.
Reality is, in fact, undefeated.
We see this a lot today, with kids coming out of college demanding high-paying jobs and that employers cater to their personal whims, but often not even being able to go to job interviews without bringing their parents.
Does that sound like they've received a quality education? Or a practical one? Does it sound like they've been prepared to face the world out on their own?
It's not all the kids' fault though. They were sold a lie about college. And they bought it. There was a time in America when a college education did open many doors, but that time is mostly over. Yet, they are still sold the same lie.
I've needed the uneducated farmer.
— Rev Dr Strangetweet (@lone_rides) November 19, 2024
I've needed the trade school welder and plumber.
I don't need a lawyer who doesn't know what a woman is.
Obviously, we all need doctors and lawyers and scientists too.
But we don't need any -- we never will need any -- who have been trained that a political ideology trumps their technical or specialized knowledge. The medical profession, the legal profession, and so many others have been generationally damaged by such practitioners. And by the professors who brainwashed them to be that way.
Anyway, give me someone with common sense and critical thinking skills over a degree with mental illness every day.
— Rev Dr Strangetweet (@lone_rides) November 19, 2024
Those things used to be taught in college. Even though academia has always skewed left (because it is not the real world, after all), it is only relatively recently that universities have abandoned their missions in favor of churning out drones who will reflexively repeat the dogma that has been instilled in them.
And it is spreading beyond just the undergraduate schools now. At my aforementioned alma mater, I recently attended a medical school graduation. It included a 'land acknowledgment.'
Because that has a lot to do with treating cancer or performing open-heart surgery.
Similarly, at Georgetown's law school, they suspended, investigated, and tried to fire law professor Ilya Shapiro for questioning and challenging DEI hiring practices. The school eventually reinstated him but Shapiro quit because of the way they treated him.
Good for him.
But it still leaves students in the lurch when it comes to making a university decision. Many states like Florida are removing degree requirements for a number of professions, but not nearly enough. Some existing schools -- and some new universities being established -- specifically ban any woke or DEI instruction or staffing. This is the correct path, but again it's not enough yet.
Ultimately, I don't believe there should be no colleges, and -- despite his fiery initial tweet -- I am not sure Dr. Strangetweet truly believes that either. The case he is arguing is that college is not a prerequisite anymore for a successful and contributory life.
Or at least that it shouldn't be.
The question high school students have always wrestled with is 'Do I want to go to college?' I don't think that question is relevant anymore. The question they should be asking now is, 'Do I need to go to college?'
Unless they have a specific and specialized career in mind, the answer to that question increasingly seems to be, 'No.'
