Showing posts with label economics of education. Show all posts
Showing posts with label economics of education. Show all posts

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

One More Thought For Today.

A few weeks ago, I wrote a post on education, lamenting the fact that like just about everything else, it has become a commodity, measured almost exclusively by its ability to lead to a good-paying job. Last evening, while watching the local news, I once more had confirmation of this.

An economics professor from McMaster talked about how education gives you a much better return on the dollar than most 'financial instruments' such as stocks or RRSP's. The report went on to say that having a Masters will enhance your earning power 8 or 9% on top of a Bachelor's degree.

As I have written previously, there is nothing wrong with the idea of pursuing education for the economic benefits it can confer, but to have it considered purely in those terms, without any acknowledgement of the value of the critical thinking skills benefits than can also accrue, seems to me quite short-sighted and yet another indication of the shallowness of our times.

You can watch the full report here.