Think Twice ABout College

It is Friday and I’m just saying…..

·      The cost of a college education in 1980 was $11,000 (in 2012 dollars) now it is $29,000.

·      The average debt for a graduate in 2013 is $35,200.

·      Recent studies indicate that after two years in college, 45% of students showed no significant gains in learning; after four years, and 36% showed little change. Students also spent 50% less time studying compared with students a few decades ago.

·      35% of students report spending five or fewer hours per week studying alone. Yet, despite an "ever-growing emphasis" on study groups and collaborative projects, students who study in groups tend to have lower gains in learning.

·      50% said they never took a class in a typical semester where they wrote more than 20 pages; 32% never took a course in a typical semester where they read more than 40 pages per week.  (These facts from USA Today)

·      There were 1.9 million unemployed college graduates in October, according to the Labor Department, a third of them younger than 35.

·      About half of young graduates are either unemployed or are working in jobs that don’t require a college degree.  DOL

·      The median worker with a degree in counseling psychology earns $29,000…. and those with degrees in early childhood education earn $36,000

·      In 2008, 81 percent of adults thought college were a worthwhile investment. This year, 57 percent think so.

·      Nearly 30% of Americans with associate's degrees now make more than those with bachelor's degrees, according to Georgetown University's Center on Education and the Workforce. In fact, other recent research in several states shows that, on average, community college graduates right out of school make more than graduates of four-year universities.

·      The average wage for graduates of community colleges in Tennessee, for instance, is $38,948 -- more than $1,300 higher than the average salaries for graduates of the state's four-year institutions.

·      In Virginia, recent graduates of community-college occupational and technical degree programs make an average of $40,000. That’s an almost $2,500 more than recent bachelor’s degree recipient.

·      Recent reports increasingly show that bachelor’s-degree graduates are unprepared for the workplace. According to a Chronicle of Higher Education/American Public Media’s Marketplace survey of 50,000 employers, half said they had trouble finding recent graduates qualified to fill positions at their company, saying that many lack basic qualifications such as adaptability, written and oral communication skills, decision-making, and the ability to solve complex problems. –

·      When a college is merely passing along technology as skills, they can’t always teach them what they’ll need tomorrow.  The technology they learn today will be different five years from now. -Create-Better-Prepared-Graduates.aspx#sthash.OrpdZ4h8.dpuf

·      Obtaining a college degree appears, in important ways, to be valuable because it's a reliable signal of diligence and conformity. As an individual, that's just something you should know. But as a society, we should ask whether there isn't some more cost-effective way young people can show that they're willing and able to pursue multiyear projects.

Mud, Baseball and Father's Day

 

My Dad knew how to get a baseball field ready for play after a big rain.

The St. Joseph  Little League City Championship game, played sometime in the 1950’s, would never have been played if not for Walter Dunn.

He brought in a helicopter to dry the field.

Dad knew to soak sawdust with a mixture of coal oil and gasoline and spread it on the dirt.  I can still picture him raking the flames.  He raked mud into submission and had a knack for getting 25 or 30 guys to spend an entire Saturday getting a field ready so the boys  could play.

When we moved to Savannah, Missouri, Dad brought his field-drying magic with him.

He knew where the water would stand at the Savannah Park softball field and had us out digging trenches in the rain.  We worked well into the early mornings preparing  softball fields for district championship play.

Dad knew how to do make a soggy mess into a manicured infield. Mostly, he enjoyed giving a kid a chance to play ball.

He didn’t just dry fields for the big games.  Walter had a sense that a schedule was to be honored and a game should be played.  It was the game he loved; and, what a kids becomes when he makes a fine play or blasts a hanging curve over an outfielder’s head.

I’ve saw him many times sitting in a grandstand, watching a baseball game, and picking blisters from raking mud. He was the reason the kids got to play.

I don’t have a Dad to surprise with breakfast in bed or a sentimental card.

I do have a memory however, and my Dad shows up there at the strangest times. 

There was the Memorial Day that my brother and I sat behind home plate, picking our blisters from raking mud and getting a ball field ready for play.

Neither of us had a kid in the game.  We just up and volunteered to help get the field ready.

“Field looks pretty good,” we said to each other, and then enjoyed seeing kids get to play.

My brother and I had a great Dad, and we still want to be just like him from time to time.