I read a very interesting blog named the Bayou Renaissance Man. I like it because the writing is great and the blogging approach (if you squint your eyes really hard) is somewhat similar to my own. To say the blog topics are eclectic is a fairly large understatement and there is some interesting windmill tilting crusades going for which I have no dog in the fight, but that are fun and interesting. So today, he had an article titled A Fascinating Look at the Shrinking Value of Higher Education. It makes some comments and points to an article at the Captain Capitalism blog (that I have now marked and plan to visit regularly) titled The Music School Bubble. The posts are a topic that is dear to our hearts, the higher education bubble and the best way to educate one’s self to get a job as opposed to get a degree.
Just last night, Christian and I had a vigorous conversation about this specific topic. He will be in a fairly unique situation in that he is on track to finish his PhD in Electrical Engineering by the time he is 22 or 23. It is not too early to try to figure out what should come next. I have tried to recommend that since he is so young, he expand his education into a completely different area. He has Applied Math and Electrical Engineering so maybe some academic work in Chemistry or Materials Science or even Biology might combine well with that. He countered by saying that classes often get in the way of his learning these days. He likes his classes and the material in them, but believes he can understand it faster by reading the literature and working with people who understand it.
Here is a quote from the article that got me to thinking Christian’s career might be much better served by getting out there and getting going on what he wants to actually do than just spending more time in academia for the prestige of it all:
I believe that being a full time musician who plays live (and/or in the studio) is the greatest badge of honor a musician can bestow upon himself. Why? Because it’s proof you can beat the odds. It shows you have no need for the “stability” of teaching music. See, we all think we need to be teachers because that is what MUSIC SCHOOLS tell us. They have a large stock in keeping interest in becoming a music teacher, for it keeps them employed, and the cycle continues. As of today, it’s spiraled out of control. Our families all want us to be teachers because they figure it’s the closest thing to a “real job” that a musician can have. It’s a lot safer than playing in bars, touring, and all of those “lifestyle” things that many people think are part of a music career.
Christian had the opportunity to go to Stanford or UCSD for that kind of a boutique degree, but chose to go with a professor who had actually worked at the highest levels of his field in industry at a premier research institution, only returning to academia much later in his career. The higher education is much less pronounced in the STEM fields, but having worked on the commercialization of technology from top tier engineering schools, I am convinced more than ever that the vast bulk of technological advancements in all but a few arenas are coming out of industry, not academia. The knowledge that new engineers coming out of supposedly great school with difficult STEM degrees will need to start from ground zero to be trained for several years before they become useful is disheartening.
These are just observations. I do not know the answer for anyone on any of this. I just know that vast amounts of time and money spent in academia would be much more well spent in the real world if the desired result is to prepare people for jobs, real life and an understanding of how to contribute to society at large.
Betty Blonde #399 – 01/26/2010
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