All the evidence, including our personal experience, suggests that education is the key to opportunity. Bill and Melinda Gates annual letter, 2018
Neither of my folks finished college, and I resented that my entire childhood. I swore that I would get a degree and would only marry someone with a degree. That was my only criteria, it didn’t matter what the degree was in, just that he and I had one. I have a Bachelor of Arts in English and my husband, despite multiple attempts at online school, has no post high-school degree.
I hear talk lately that college is a waste of time. People cite Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg as examples of college drop-outs who have been wildly successful. I believe these men are exceptions to the rule. We can also point to Sergey Brin and Larry Page who were getting their PHDs in math when they founded Google, or Ed Catmull, one of the founders of PIXAR, who has his PHD in computer science.
My brother in law, who makes a very good living as a network guy feels that his college degree was a waste of time and money. He already had a good job and felt that his work taught him what he needed to know and that the things he learned at school were more general and not applicable. I get that. Did I mention I have a Bachelor of Arts in English?
Even if we don’t use our degrees directly, college rounds us out and gives us opportunities we wouldn’t otherwise have. My husband is a smart guy, and has done OK for himself, but he’s always been self-conscious that he doesn’t have a degree, and felt early in his career that he had hit a glass ceiling by not having it.
I jumped on the “down with college” bandwagon for a while until I watched Marie forleo’s interview with Tammy Tibbets, founder of She’s the First, a non-profit that helps girls in 3rd world countries receive an education, and Marie’s two amazing interviews with Leila Janah, founder of SamaSource which helps people raise their standard of living through the dignity of work, and all the work that Michelle Obama has done with education. I remembered how valuable an education is, not just to me and my family, but to people worldwide. I remembered how education can lift people out of poverty, and how when women are educated it lifts communities and generations.
To say that college is useless is evidence of privilege. It shows that we have a choice. Some people still have to fight for opportunities to attend school. And I’ll join that fight so that others can get an education. Maybe college isn’t for everyone, and certainly it is a sacrifice, but so worth it if we can lift ourselves and others.
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