New Rule: Don't Go to College | Real Time with Bill Maher (HBO)

In his editorial New Rule, Bill warns that college life has become a day spa combined with a North Korean reeducation camp, where students are indoctrinated into a stew of bad ideas.

[michaelturnblom]

"Elite schools should no longer be called elite. Just call them expensive." Keep speaking truth to power, Bill.

[MammeMassaert]

I was one of those people that didn't care about a credit score, didn't get enough education about how important your credit score is, how it works, and I racked up debt like an idiot. I worked really hard, educated myself and needed a CFA, Abby Joseph Cohen's guidance with lnvestments before I was able to bring my credit score from 480 to 732 and I'm still going up. Yet I can't help to think that the lack of proper financial education in public education system was partly the cause of my misfortunes in the first place

[happygrandma]

As an immigrant from Italy with a 3rd grade education, my father was one of the smartest people I've known. He could build anything, fix anything, got a job in a rubber factory building tires, was promoted to job setter, was offered a supervisory job but hesitated simply because he couldn't write well in English. All this with a 3rd grade education! A college degree doesn't make one smarter, it just makes them officially smart.

[tfmqxfk]

“Never confuse education with intelligence."
-- Richard Feynman

[Markus_Andrew]

_"Never let schooling interfere with your education"_ - Mark Twain.

[MrAjmay]

The principal benefit of a Harvard degree is never again having to be impressed by anyone with a Harvard degree. -Thomas Sowell.

[janetprice]

I spent six years at three universities and from the look of things my generation was the last to be graduated with an education not a mental illness.

[nogagazal]

Man Bill, thank you so much! I see demonstrations of ignorant students shouting from the river to the sea and I guarantee you they can't find any of them on a map (Mediterranean Sea, Jordan River BTW). I have also been in Israel all my life and no one claims that it is a perfect country, far from it, but I studied at the university with Arab friends and voted with them on the same ballot, my child's kindergarten teacher is an Arab woman and my colleagues at work. Since the establishment of the state there have been Arab members of parliament and in the previous government an Arab party was in the government. It just doesn't happen in apartheid. This only happens in a democracy. Ignorance and lies are a real problem, they just feel they are supposed to shout their nonsense without realizing that it really affects other people's lives.

[truegrit]

I am a college professor, and this is all so true. Universities cow-tow to hothouse-flower students. It's absolutely nauseating.

[davetheauthor]

I would swap "don't go to college" with "don't go to an expensive college". So many jobs require a Bachelor's at minimum, but they don't really care where you went or what you majored in. They're usually much more interested in your work experience.

[vincentpapa]

My company president once said “there are 30% of us in this company that went to college and we can’t sell anything, fix anything, build anything and we don’t know our products intimately enough to help with the supply chain or negotiate delivery and prices.” He later went on to say “when we need to cut costs our first thoughts are cut employees at the bottom, charge employees more for their portion of healthcare and take away overtime, it’s never been the people with college degrees that have kept this company going.”

[A-Nonnie-Mouse]

I taught a masters level ethics class before I left academia, and students would approach me privately to share their peer-unapproved thoughts. Students know they will be shunned, and their peers can affect their longterm career prospects. The incentives aren't there for honest, open discussion.

But the problem goes all the way up to the tenured faculty having a hive mind and looking for reasons to reject tenure proposals from professors who don't fit in. And it starts early when new professors are still at the tenure-track level, where hiring decisions are decided primarily by faculty vote, further leading to the homogenization of 'academics.' 

Lecturers and teaching professors are barely even acknowledged as existing and serve only to pick up the work loads of the tenured and tenure-track faculty. As they are particularly dependent on student evaluations of their teaching, rocking the boat is an even greater risk.

So however bad it is now, it's only getting worse.

[gordonstewart]

'In every disaster throughout American history, there always seems to be a man from Harvard in the middle of it.'
-Thomas Sowell

[JuanAvo]

“You can always tell a Harvard grad, but you cannot tell them anything…”

[elainealibrandi]

The problem is that the majority of jobs require a college degree, which in many cases is ridiculous.

[fishfan]

This is brilliant. Thank you. Scary how little room there is for nuance or the free exchange of ideas on college campuses.

[GBU]

When I went to college in the 80s, it was actually affordable. You got value out of the degree because you were not in debt for years afterwards. I could see possibly attending for a highly specialized field, such as medicine, engineering or law, but outside of those professions, the cost benefit is no longer a wise decision. Stanford, as an example is about $80k per year if you live on campus and eat in the cafeteria. Even state schools are $15k and up. My daughter, when asked about college, did not see going for the cost involved, which made a lot of sense to me. She is preparing for a career in a very affordable profession that is usable in the real world.

[lw]

I needed my master's degree (from a private college) to practice in my field. But every time I hire a plumber, roofer or electrician, they all are earning way more per hour than I am.

[Heathcoatman]

I got a BA back in the 80s and that was friggin hard. I actually had to study and work my butt off to get that degree. Sleepless nights, fingers worn raw from taking notes (see kids, there used to be these things called 'pen and paper' and they were essential to college life). People flunked out all of the time, and the attitude in the college was 'don't want to work? don't let the door hit you in the ass'.

I went back for my Masters in 2015 and I couldn't believe how it had changed. Nobody worked, no professor challenged anyone's ideas or introduced ideas that weren't 'coddled child friendly'. People in grad school who didn't know the difference between their, there and they're. Teachers who didn't care that they didn't know, and never marked off for basic mistakes these students should have learned in 7th grade. It was nothing but a diploma mill. None of those kids were learning anything. It was really quite sad.

[othergmailaddress]

Literally heard a masters student say they were surprised we learned about Freud and his theories based on how exclusionary they were for the queer community and people of color. This is in a social work class where understanding psychodynamic approaches is important and it’s helpful to learn about a pivotal figures in their development. Just because you don’t agree with someone’s opinions - especially a historical figure - or how they conducted themselves personally does not mean their work should be negated or that their entire character was this way. (For the most part. As always there are exceptions to the rule.) and, in any case, we shouldn’t ban topics or people to learn about. Knowing history is important so it’s not repeated or, selfishly, so you’re not horribly uniformed/misinformed.