We should ALL support free college, because a college education should be an EDUCATION.

[a la izquierda]

48. Speaking from the perspective of a humanities professor...

this paragraph- "Instead, the college experience is reduced, for the most part, to gaining white collar job skills. If you are struggling to pay for college, you have to get through as quickly as possible and learn nothing but what you need to memorize to pass the courses. " is key. This is something we discuss at length in department meetings, as my colleagues and I try to figure out how to retain majors. Students think history is "hard." There's too much reading and writing. I have students who are intensely curious about the world, yet confide that their parents only want them to get a degree that will ensure they make money, regardless of the desire of the student. And that makes for an unhappy kid who sees college as a means to an end, a degree granting factory in which many demand As simply for showing up. They're sorely mistaken when they realize that university is more than having a pulse in a classroom. They are often happy to learn that history, at least for my colleagues and I, is a series of interconnect events that impact everything we do today. And I don't do many dates.

I have a PhD in history. I was originally a physical therapy major. My mother BALKED at the idea of me switching to history when I was an undergrad. "What the hell will you do with a history degree?" she asked. But she let me do it, for two reasons. One, she wasn't paying for college for me. I maxed out loans every year to put myself through an excellent, but expensive state school (thank you, Christie Todd Whitman, for keeping NJ tuition so high). And two, my mommy wasn't a helicopter parent who micromanaged my life. She knew I'd succeed (or fail), but that I'd figure out my life for myself. And I did. I'm many thousands in debt as a result, but they're getting paid slowly.