Comments on a post by The Native Tourist
As an NSA student, you can bet this post caught my eye, and so I wanted to take a second to chime in.
First of all, after scanning the comments that you linked to, I noticed a common theme. Everyone seems to talk about degrees in connection with supporting a family. One thing that I think wasn't considered in that discussion is that NSA does prepare one to support a family, but not in the limited way that everyone was using it. NSA may tend to produce teachers more than anything else, but thinking that that is all that they produce I think is short-sighted.
Speaking from my own experience, I think that as a result of NSA I will be better prepared to be a good husband, a good father, a good employee, and a good boss. Not that those who don't go to NSA aren't those, but NSA has taught me more about life in three and a half years than I could have had in 20 elsewhere. You don't simply take the classes but you also 'take the teachers' in a sense. You are watching them raise their families, love their wives, and interact with you as their students. In a world that has degrees that ensure great jobs by the droves, isn't it time that we not only think pragmatically and simply about the finances, but also think about getting educated in wisdom? We definitely won't get and haven't gotten a great deal of specialized education at NSA, but sometimes I think I'd rather live in a small town, in a decent sized house, work a decent job that I actually love, and work on developing a strong Christian home, than to worry so much about exactly how much money I can make right out of college.
And for what it's worth, I think the current trend for job changes in a lifetime is something like an average of 5 times (not counting the pre-college fast-food type jobs) and many of those are into radically different fields that what people have gotten their degrees in. That is hardly an encouraging statistic for those persuing a specialized degree.
And lastly, I think it makes sense to point out that there are many times in engineering companies for example in which someone who has specialized in engineering gets promoted into a management job in which their degree does little to no good for them. Perhaps a liberal arts degree might be better suited to positions like these?
Just a couple of thoughts. I guess you can tell I get a little defensive about my education sometimes. I hope it comes across in the cordial tone I mean it in.
Cheers.
Dave, what is your view of these things these days? Are you less concerned that young men study something marketable? Or has your view of what is marketable broadened?
Maybe a more interesting question would be: If (hypothetically) your daughter was a boy, and he wanted to date your daughter (in actuality), would you be worried about his future ability to provide for a family given his/her interest in liberal arts?
...if you see what I'm asking.
Baus - You raise some interesting questions. In considering any prospective suitor for one my daughters, one of my major concerns is how they will provide for a family. This is especially challenging for someone who wants to pursue a profession like law or medicine, or university teaching in the humanities or science. An NSA degree would be a great foundation for all of these except science, although an NSA student could use all their electives along with a small number of other courses (taken over the summer?) to go on this trajectory.
NSA is also a great place to prep for teaching at a classical Christian school (though this may not offer the best pay.) NSA is also better for some humanities that others. It would be strongest for literature, classics, dead languages, history but weak in fields like art history and social sciences.
If one of my sons wanted to go on one of these career trajectories, I think that NSA would be a great choice. At the present time they both show some interest in engineering and one of them is interested in graphic design and film making. How would NSA work for them? I'm not sure. I could see them attending NSA for a year or two to get a strong foundation, then going to community college to get a certificate in a trade/profession.
I also still wonder how wise it is to go deeply into debt to get any kind of degree...
Hoosier - you say,
"but sometimes I think I'd rather live in a small town, in a decent sized house, work a decent job that I actually love, and work on developing a strong Christian home, than to worry so much about exactly how much money I can make right out of college."
I agree with this, assuming that small town life will work for your circumstance. But cities are hugely expensive. Establishing a home in any high priced region (Portland is becoming so) is very daunting. We moved to Oregon from the NYC metro area so that we could afford a home. But what is one to do if they live in the Bay Area or LA? This is an important question that the church needs to tackle.
I just came across this today. It might answer some questions...
http://right-mind.us/blogs/mosco...1/30/
39151.aspx
Thanks for the link, Hooser. Having a "longer" view is important. The real question I have is how to keep it together financially in the short term. Being the young head of a household with a liberal arts degree in a expensive area of the country is pretty daunting.
It interesting to note that in the orthdox Jewish communities, they encouraged all the young men to learn a "skill", then to pursue intellectual studies.
Historically though, in our country, many degrees used to be much more similar to a liberal arts degree. After such a degree men would move on to more specialized material, hence a 'masters' degree. Others, however, might move on directly to apprenticing after their bachelors degree. I am much more in favor of the apprenticeship model. Many employers have ended up doing lots of additional training on the job to round out the areas that a classroom education didn't train.
As far as your concern about having enough money right out of college, I think you are always going to have that concern. Even those with specialized degrees will not make the big bucks right out of college. It seems that they would be barely ahead of the game if at all by specializing, especially consdiering all the student loans that would have to be paid back in addition to living in an expensive area.
I think there is a lot more to this discussion. It is worthy of a book and I am kind of bummed that we can only chip away at it in small comments like this. Ah well.
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