Cynical Cycle

Fifty percent of families are rethinking their college choices because of finances.

California State colleges are cutting acceptances by 10,000 students because of funding.

Today, a friend told me of the 45 minute, $645 class that he had to take to renew his credential.

When did education become about money? When did it become possible to give an organization $13,000 and they give you a piece of paper that says "Master's Degree?"

What does education MEAN anyway? Does one of those pieces of paper from USC make one more educated than another who has traveled around the world? Is education just about the certificates on your wall, or is it, as I always have suspected, about experience?

I wish I could change the system. I wish we cared about learning because it makes us better people. I wish we wanted to actually LEARN. I wish I could send students around the world to study things they were interested in, rather than study curriculum that means little to them. I wish educator WANTED to learn more about their subject because they really love learning rather than just completing classes because they need to in order to get a paycheck.

Alas, that's not our system. Education = higher wages = money = capitalism. I cynically predict that someday we'll all evolve into illiterate, calculator seeking, blobs that all make $50,000 a year because we finished our computer course. (It's not that bad, I know. But it could be!)