Last week, George used this title to refer to yet another toting of the college wage premium. Here’s one claim that I think is even worse than that. According to a Chronicle article on employers’ perceptions of graduates’ (often weak) abilities:
Well, because even though employers may kvetch about college graduates, they generally make better employees than those who finished only high school, says Paul E. Harrington, who leads Drexel University’s Center for Labor Markets and Policy. If nothing else, having gone through four—or five or six—years of schooling proves that they can stick with a task. “It’s a relative bet,” he says.
Excuse me while I remove my fist from the hole in the wall. I want to think that employers are not that aloof. A college degree is the best way to show employers that a candidate can “stick with a task”? How about the completion of several challenging great books, a fit body, proficiency in a foreign language, or a substantive rock collection?