I actually think it isn't too overblown to hold up a college degree as something that, like homeownership, has been touted as the American dream and become a status item to be worshipped and sacrificed to. Our country's capitalistic nature seems to end up exploding every cultural norm that becomes too widely subscribed to. Have you seen how much weddings cost?
For one thing, I think there are a lot of bubble-like indicators out there. Just this week Forbes has a story on a charter school, Think College Now, which takes the universal attendance expectation to a new level. This is an elementary school, an elementary school, filled with college-is-for-everyone cheerleading like signs asking "Am I making college-bound choices today?"
Yes, it's gotten to a point where we've invented the college-prep public elementary school. I admit I'm partisan (I'm one of probably very few non-college-graduate Jeopardy! champions), yet isn't this substantial evidence that the attitude toward college education has become unglued from rationality?
For one thing, I think there are a lot of bubble-like indicators out there. Just this week Forbes has a story on a charter school, Think College Now, which takes the universal attendance expectation to a new level. This is an elementary school, an elementary school, filled with college-is-for-everyone cheerleading like signs asking "Am I making college-bound choices today?"
http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2010/0607/education-tcn-teamwor...
Yes, it's gotten to a point where we've invented the college-prep public elementary school. I admit I'm partisan (I'm one of probably very few non-college-graduate Jeopardy! champions), yet isn't this substantial evidence that the attitude toward college education has become unglued from rationality?