Rachel Clark

Mrs. OConner
WRTC Sec. 24
31 Mar. 2016
Educations Importance
The average college student leaves their four-year institution with a degree and an
average of $28,950 in debt (United States Bureau of Labor Statistics). This is a terrifying number
because it is only growing. Every year over the past decade the college debt deficit has
consistently surpassed the inflation rate. As soon as a student takes out a student loan the amount
will only increase. By the time the student leaves college the amount of debt they have
accumulated is nearly impossible to pay off. College is not worth it because it is not
economically sound and employers value experience over a college education.
The common response to, why should I go to college is future income will increase.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics there is, approximately, a $20,000 income difference
between people with a high school diploma and people with a bachelors degree or higher;
$35,000 versus $53,000 (United States of America. Bureau of Labor Statistics.) Considering an
average persons income does not significantly surpass the amount of debt that one accumulates
in college, the loans and their interest will continue to compound, and the 20k more per year
looks a lot smaller especially when the loan collector comes knocking.
After that, there is the question of whether or not the education system is effective. Some
commonly irrefutable evidence used against the United States education system is the global
ranking. The lower the ranking of the United States the less reputable a public degree from that
country is. Therefore when people start to look for jobs, specifically jobs that work on a global

scale, they may come to realize that the degree that they worked so hard to achieve may mean
less than they realize. Employers look for experience and personality. Other factors contributing
to the waning reputation of the American degree are the scandals. For instance, the inflation of
grades; teachers are trying to compensate for the lousy system based around standardized tests.
Professors figure out how unprepared students are when they take them out on excursions. My
business professor Dr. Cereola said last year he took a group of graduate level accountant seniors
out to a real world setting where these students had to help people with their finances. Dr.
Cereola quickly figured out that these kids had no idea how to start helping these other mock
customers with their finances, and they were all about to graduate. Afterwards, I read an article
that stated most employers choose experience over education. I was not surprised. Employers
recognize that most of these graduates will walk out of their university not knowing how to react
in real world situations. According to a study with leading employers work experience is valued
more than a GPA and where a particular person graduated. In fact, 58 percent of employers said
that the highest qualification is experience. Coming in second is the persons personality. Lastly,
it is where the prospective employee came from. Fifteen percent of these employers said they
were looking for employees from a specific university a US Ivy League or students from the
Russell Group while 16 percent said that grades from a highly decorated university were
important. (Clark) This is how an employer treats the person with the higher education level, but
ultimately the person with the most experience with the task at hand wins.
Education at its most basic levels is necessary because it acts as a foundation to the entire
countries economic independence. For example, Africas school system is waning because most
donors give money to Africa for basic needs, food, water, and health care. 30 million children in
Africa have no education. Because there is a lack of attention on the education system most

adults are illiterate, so the entire populous is at a stand still in regards to economically connecting
to the rest of the world. Factors that explain why the education system is so flawed leads back to
colonial times because the environment turned into a very labor based society in which the
people received close to no education. Later on, the colonists left and it became apparent that the
civil wars were taking a hit to education. Finally after most of that was put to rest, the teachers
sent to Africa were hardly on par with the rest of society. As of today Africa owes $150 billion
dollars of debt to various countries around the world, while only making a gross domestic
product of 3 billion (Pezl). If the economy as a whole were able to maintain a system in which it
was at least moderately possibly for people to thrive. This country could be the next economic
powerhouse -due to the raw materials that are scattered across their land- except they are
treacherously behind the rest of the world.
Talking about the direct line that education has with personal development is an
important discussion. According to the Adults Continuing Education study, women that are lack
proper education believe that their sole purpose is to produce and take care of the children, while
the husband gets a certain level of education and then goes out and gets a stable job to support
the stable family. Education helps crack the mental block that some people have in regards to
where they think they can go in life. Education opens up the mind.
Fundamentally changing education for the better starts with what should we be teaching
kids in the first place? At its best it leads kids to have questions, attempt to solve them, be able to
educate their peers on their findings, and become a leader. Tests are not the only way that
students have to be assessed. A curious mind is better than a mind that can just spit out facts. My
friend Lauren Poudvan goes to an alternative school, Olin. This University is where highly
skilled engineers go. At this institution there are not any tests. Although it is not an IV League

school, in the engineering community, it is respected as such because in this progressive school
kids are not tested instead they are given tasks to work on together. By the time they graduate
they have the equivalent to 3 to 5 years of experience as a practicing out of college adult. Not
only do these student leaders come out knowing how to work in their field, as leaders, they know
how to create new products and thrive in an ever-evolving world of technology. However taking
a look at the more world-renowned schools like Harvard this paints a different story. As a well
respected institution Harvard has cranked out some of the finer upper class citizens however
even Harvard is flawed, because it does run on a mostly test based system. In fact, that is where
Alfie Kohns wife went. She spent 29 years of her life trudging through this system, which
doesnt include her residency years, however if someone asks her basic multiplication problems
like 7 times 8 she will freeze up because she never actually learned her times tables. Her
grammar is off most of the time; when she lists off people she typically says, me and him, her
and me, this all brings one to think about, how this could have even happened? (Clark) The
system itself is so focused on those mandatory assessments that students learn how to keep
information short term, so they can regurgitate it for one test, and then forget basically all of it
one day after theyve finished the test. There is no long-term way to address education because
the system values those test scores over the students actual education. She is another prime
example of why it does not matter where someone graduated. It matters what they do when
theyre done with their degree. Basic skills can get you through a few interviews, but thriving
doing what you love takes a deeper understanding.
Overall it can be seen that the financial situation of the education system is highly flawed.
Only extremely driven and/or wealthy people can afford it. Its also apparent that even if one
does go through the system there is no guarantee that you will ever get out of that debt sentence.

When schools teach students how to regurgitate information rather than, knowing the nuances of
a particular subject they will loose the creativity that they once possessed. Therefore we will
create clones not inventions. This society kills the inventive drive and makes the students want a
stable job because they believe most of life can only be lived on whats in your bank account.
Plus if one achieves this ideal high paying job theyll be able to pay off those loans that theyve a
crewed.

Works Cited
Clarke, Julia. "'A Well-educated Person Is a Man in a Suit' : Meanings, Values and Identity in the
Biographies of Part-time Adult Learners - Clarke, Julia." 'A Well-educated Person Is a
Man in a Suit' : Meanings, Values and Identity in the Biographies of Part-time Adult
Learners - Clarke, Julia. Education-line, 27 July 1997. Web. 03 Mar. 2016.
Garner, Richard. "Leading Employers Prefer Value Work Experience among Graduates over
Grades, Says New Research." The Independent. Independent Digital News and Media, 30
May 2015. Web. 02 Mar. 2016.
Pezl, Daniel. "Poor Marks for Africa's Schools." Editorial. Deutsche Welle 3 Feb. 2016: n. pag.
Print.
United States of America. Bureau of Labor Statistics. United States Department of
Laboror. Economic News Release. Washington DC: Division of Labor Force Statistics,
2016. Bureau of Labor. Web. 1 Mar. 2016.