The more cynical and jaded among us - and that would certainly include me - would find something grotesque about the father and his two daughters moving the tassels on their mortar board caps from one side to the other. You see, these graduations are not things for which we should be especially proud. They are, in fact, representations of an enormous waste.
The father, retired from the world of work, has completed a degree that has no practical employment implications. He has been trained for something - but something that he will never use. His degree is nothing more than a flowery garland around his neck, a glittering decoration, an anachronistic chest full of ribbons: in short, it represents a profligate waste. He will never use any of the training and education behind that degree. The reasonable question, then, is this: Why would he put in all that time and effort for something he will never use?
Every now and then we read about some elderly woman completing her fifth doctorate degree in the university at age ninety-five. We are expected to stand back and admire her accomplishment. But I'm always taken back by that, however. To what end would a ninety-five-year-old woman seek another doctorate degree? What would she do with four such degrees, much less five of them? More to the point, why should the citizens of the state pay for her pointless narcissism? If she wishes to pursue even more advanced degrees in her dotage, why are others being asked to pay for it?
Those two daughters with masters degrees share in the same narcissism. When those two women were unable to find jobs after completing their baccalaureate degrees, they decided "to continue their education" by pursuing masters degrees at a state university school. Their thinking then, as it is with many students today, was to mark time by getting a master’s degree while the job market improves enough so that they could find a job. Again, the cost and expense for that education was largely paid by others.
What I find interesting is this: the particular state I live in has lost 400,000 jobs since Obama became president. There are no jobs available in this state. And yet the state is pouring enormous resources into higher education for students who will take their degrees and move to another state to find employment. The reasonable state taxpayer should ask this simple question: Why are we training people for employment in, say, Texas?
What is the true price of narcissism? Maybe it’s a lot more than we can afford.
The father, retired from the world of work, has completed a degree that has no practical employment implications. He has been trained for something - but something that he will never use. His degree is nothing more than a flowery garland around his neck, a glittering decoration, an anachronistic chest full of ribbons: in short, it represents a profligate waste. He will never use any of the training and education behind that degree. The reasonable question, then, is this: Why would he put in all that time and effort for something he will never use?
Every now and then we read about some elderly woman completing her fifth doctorate degree in the university at age ninety-five. We are expected to stand back and admire her accomplishment. But I'm always taken back by that, however. To what end would a ninety-five-year-old woman seek another doctorate degree? What would she do with four such degrees, much less five of them? More to the point, why should the citizens of the state pay for her pointless narcissism? If she wishes to pursue even more advanced degrees in her dotage, why are others being asked to pay for it?
Those two daughters with masters degrees share in the same narcissism. When those two women were unable to find jobs after completing their baccalaureate degrees, they decided "to continue their education" by pursuing masters degrees at a state university school. Their thinking then, as it is with many students today, was to mark time by getting a master’s degree while the job market improves enough so that they could find a job. Again, the cost and expense for that education was largely paid by others.
What I find interesting is this: the particular state I live in has lost 400,000 jobs since Obama became president. There are no jobs available in this state. And yet the state is pouring enormous resources into higher education for students who will take their degrees and move to another state to find employment. The reasonable state taxpayer should ask this simple question: Why are we training people for employment in, say, Texas?
What is the true price of narcissism? Maybe it’s a lot more than we can afford.
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