Is college worth it?

If you want a high-paying job, don’t go to college. Go to a trade school. Welding, IT, mechanics and the like are in high demand. You can go to work for a Nevada mine, be hired right away, and with good work ethic within a year be making six figures plus benefits. Most college degrees no longer offer that.

If your news source is something besides mainstream media you can’t help but notice that at least daily there is an article about some inane action or policy coming from a college or university.

Some of them make me wonder if our education system has gone completely off the rails. Professors teach America is flawed, socialism is good, everyone must be “equal,” and you have a right to everything. They raise the question of whether a college degree is really worth anything. Here are some recent examples.

Black students at Harvard University have raised money for their own black-only graduation ceremony. This is the first segregated graduation in Harvard’s nearly 400 year history. The students themselves proclaim that this is not segregation. What happened to all that education?

According to Breitbart news, colleges across the country are offering students ways to cope with the stress of their final examinations. The University of Pennsylvania, for example, offered a Zumba class and video games. Penn State included something called “brain massage music” to help de-stress its students, while Hope College and St. Cloud University offered doggy playtime.

If that isn’t enough, the University of Michigan planned to provide Play-Doh to deal with the stress of President Donald Trump winning the election, but removed the activity due to the internet backlash.

Much of this comes from professors. Professor John Griffin, who works in the Media Arts and Animation Department at the Art Institute of Washington outside Washington, D.C., had to apologize after saying House Republicans should face a firing squad for voting several weeks ago on a plan to repeal and replace Obamacare. In his Facebook post, Griffin said Republicans “should be lined up and shot” for their votes. And this guy sets his own curriculum.

Indiana’s Butler University offers a course intended to provide students with “strategies for resistance” against the Trump administration, which the course’s description defines using divisive and controversial language. The course will be available to students during its fall 2017 semester.

Wellesley College denied it is becoming an enemy of free speech. Then the student newspaper at the school said “hostility may be warranted” for those who “are given the resources to learn and either continue to speak hate speech or refuse to adapt their beliefs.” In other words, you had better agree with them.

The University of Iowa is now training “white identified” students and faculty on how their skin color gives them “white privilege.” Ohio State University is offering a course that is focused on teaching students how to detect microaggressions and white privilege. The course description states it is dedicated to social justice themes, and promises to teach students how to “identify microaggressions,” define and address “systems of power and privilege,” advance notions of diversity and inclusion, and prioritize “global citizenship.”

The University of Wisconsin-Madison is currently taking applications for its “Men’s Project,” a program that aims to counter the alleged “harmful effects of society’s masculinity paradigms and pressures and empower participants to promote gender equity.” It’s open only to “men-identified students.” Isn’t that sexist and segregationist?

These are just the examples I came across in the last three weeks. Combine that with what I mentioned in my last column where a California college voted to make the American flag optional at meetings and another student group stated that truth is myth, it makes me wonder if a college degree serves a purpose any more.

Degrees in engineering, medical sciences, chemistry, mathematics, and other rigorous curricula are still needed. With one of those degrees you can probably find a job besides barista after graduation. Beyond that, how many political science, liberal arts, or ancient civilizations majors do we really need?

In my opinion most college degrees have lost their usefulness. If college teachings are a sign of things to come, this country will socialist before long. It is time to demand real curricula, not socialist agendas. Otherwise, why go to college? Who wants to live in an environment where men are demeaned, whites are shamed, and safe spaces are needed? Choose to live in the real world free of liberal snowflakes.

Tom Riggins’ column appears every other Friday. He may be reached at news@lahontanvalleynews.com.