"Called" out

So the other day I'm having a conversation about acsessability in higher education. (The same type of thing all of you readers were probably also talking about the other day.)

The issue, in a nutshell, is that everyone wants higher ed to make degrees more available to everyone. Let's make America a more educated place. Good call, but if you do that, it's going to devalue existing degrees. It's like saying "Hey, people are poor, let's print more money." It's not really a win-win situation. In the short run it's a win-lose, and in the long run...I'm not really sure.

But I was defending my point of view by saying that degree inflation is making it very difficult for even trained people to find a job. For example, I (Steve Conn) have a master's degree in higher ed. and am having difficulty finding entry level positions as a hall director at small Christian schools. That's basically like a D-1 college basketball player getting cut from a church league basketball team becuase for some reason the church league is FULL of D-1 college basketball players and you are no longer as special as you thought.

Then she drops the bomb on me. She says "is it really that you can't find a job or is that you are only looking for jobs in higher education?"

I thought to myself "Well what else WOULD I be looking for? Remember how that's what I've spent two years and $20,000 explicitly training for? But then I realized something. Even in white America there is still a great disparity between socio-ecenomic classes. Most people in this country (let alone the world) are looking for work so they can have money to pay for their needs. I on the other hand am so priviledged that I can delay working for two years AFTER college to go to more school, then look for a specific job in a specific field. Some of my peers even have the audacity to be even MORE selective and be choosey about WHICH small christian school hires them to be a hall director. I actually know some people down-right DISSAPOINTED becuase they have a job at a school that is "so-so but not great."

People are starving and some of us are upset becuase they forgot the cherry on our ice cream sunday.

I forgot that I'm not having a difficulty finding a job. I'm having difficulty finding a job that serves my desires, interests, and personal goals. I think allegedly I got an education to be a public servant, but it would appear that me (and most of the people I know) expect that my education is going to provide me with all the stuff I want.

Generally speaking, isn't a job supposed to be an exchange? I give you my time and you give me some money? But I believe that most of the people I spend most of my time with (including me) think that a job must be a "win-win" situation. You give me money, and you also give me a sense of personal fulfillment, and you give me professonal development, and you give me good supervison, and you give me a good balence of challenge and support, and you give me a good community. Then maybe I will consent to giving you my time, as long as it is spent on stuff I kinda enjoy.

No one would have said it that way...but it really describes a lot of people. And if you are getting your master's degree in higher education right now...it might be you.