Student Poverty Video

A friend of mine is a part of this great little video, done to promote awareness of the fact that too many post-secondary students are drowning in debt, with little prospects of getting the jobs in the near future to reduce this issue.  He plays keyboards in the group and is studying music at Dalhousie University in New Brunswick, in eastern Canada.  Apparently Dalhousie suffers from one of the higher debt ratios per student in our fair land.

As the father of a university student, I am often second guessing the investment of education as well.  I know stats have over many years proven that degree-holding individuals have much higher overall life-time earnings than those without.  I'm wondering how this concept will evolve over the next few decades.

Right now we have all our universities crowded to their potential, with a huge percentage of undergrads, upon graduation, moving on to pursue post graduate studies.  Those folks used to be few and far between, and joined a very small and elite sector in society.  It is like, the BA/BSc has become the new Grade 12, and the MA/PhD is the new BA/BSc.   And while it is all fine and well for people to have become so educated, do we have the economic job base to continue this trend?  We currently have far too many degreed individuals waiting tables and other mundane jobs, just to pay back student loans and try to keep afloat.

So back to the video.  Have too many folks fallen prey to the notion that a university degree is the key to success?  My feelings are that there are too many young people out there, with no clear cut sense of direction to take educationally, who just fall into the trap of taking course after course in the hopes that something will ignite their passion.  The problem is that the wick is getting mighty expensive and there are people who probably could reach the same goal, but working for a few years thus amassing the money to tackle post secondary education, as opposed to casting about aimlessly, incurring debt rather than accumulating assets.

And that is about all I have to say for today.

Musings and meanderings from the Musical Gardener.