In his New Yorker article, Menand lays out two basic, polarized theories of higher education and one that toes the line between Theory 1 and Theory 2. The basis for his conversation with the readers lies in the central question of the purpose of higher education.
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| Thiel Fellowship founder, Peter Thiel |
In modern culture, education beyond elementary training is seen as a must in order to enter the upper echelon of our society. One billionaire venture capitalist and private equity maven disagrees. Peter Thiel, co-founder of PayPal, founder of Clarium Capital, and angel investor in a small social networking start-up called "Facebook" has a slightly different idea for the next generation of global leaders - drop out. Thiel founded the Thiel Fellowship, he selects between twenty and thirty of the most talented "under 20s" in the world each year, gives them a hundred thousand dollars and tells them to change the world. There is only one caveat, you can't go to school.
The highly unorthodox nature of this experiment in the path of education has received both raves and jeers by pop-intellectuals. Columbia’s Shamus Khan, called the Thiel Fellowship "an act of total self-indulgence." Inc.com’s Eric Markowitz defends Thiel is his article Examining the Thiel Fellowship: Is It Worthwhile? Markowitz makes a number of points that I agree with, starting with that it’s in fact working. While the fellowship is a two year program, and is only meant to be a launching pad to success, one fellow has already sold out making a handsome six figure return, and others are well on their way to innovative success.
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| The first class of Thiel Fellows |
The second point, and one that I believe speaks more to the theory of higher education as a whole is that Thiel isn’t proposing that everyone should drop out. He’s not on a crusade against college, he merely sees that with record student debt (over $1 trillion nationally) and rising tuition costs, it’s not for everyone and is sometimes (in the case of his fellows) economically inefficient.
This points to what I believe to be the heart of the education issue, the entire system doesn’t have to fit into one theory of higher education. In the abstract, this theorization is worthwhile, but in the practical world we live in, it means very little. We can have people that look at college as a method of competitive delineation and they’re welcome to pursue the likes of magna cum laude at Harvard. And we can have people who see liberal arts education as a necessary basis for a well informed society, and they’re welcome to pursue the likes of Wellesley or Chapman, or Claremont McKenna, or any liberal arts (or liberal arts-oriented) school they desire. And we can have people who see college as a vocational institution, and they’re welcome to pursue the path of business school, or engineering school, or any other means to their desired end. And just like the three ideas espoused by Menand, we can have brilliant minds forfeit their merit scholarship to Princeton, Yale, or Columbia in order to pursue their dreams of changing the world - just ask Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg, or Bill Gates.
Brad,
ReplyDeleteInteresting post! Menand had us look at higher education from different viewpoints, all while staying in school. You have brought up a very good proposal of a fourth theory of education. For billionaires, dropping out of school was, ironically, probably the best decision they had ever made. Many of my friends, and myself included, always joke that we should just drop out of school and invent something to better mankind, such as the cure for cancer. Who needs books and paper writing and exams? They’re not representative of how truly smart and innovative we can be. But realistically, dropping out of school isn’t for everyone.
This fourth theory you proposed would only apply to the elite, if not something higher than elite. I visited the Thiel Fellowship’s website and read some of the fellows’ background information -- they are exceptional! The money given to them has been put to good use. If that money were just given to someone random, they might waste it on selfish or harmful acts. Students who drop out should know they’re dropping out for valid reasons and not just because they think they’ll get “lucky” and become a billionaire when they wake up the next day. Dropping out is risky, and for the majority of the student population, it might be best to stay in school. This fourth theory is reserved for a small handfull. People go to college for different reasons, and like you wrote, “the entire system doesn’t have to fit into one theory of higher education.” Great post and analysis on Menand’s theories of higher education!
Brad,
ReplyDeleteYour post was really interesting! I have never heard of Thiel or his giving money to students before. I think that the concept behind what he's doing is cool. In our society, college has become a necesity to have a successful career in life. It's interesting and helpful that he's giving such an interesting idea to kids.
The idea, however, intrinsically fails at trying to give young adults in America a legitimate opportunity to skip college for a different career pathway. The only way for one to follow this plan is to miraculously receive one-hundred thousand dollars, and I don't think that there would ever be a program that people that don't go to college with that much money.
Now, I know that Thiel probably didn't expect his plan to be enacted for all potential successful teenagers that didn't want to go to college, but he does want people to have an opportunity at life without attending a higher educational university. The problem is that not even this billionaire can supply the funds to make this an opportunity for more than a small handful of college-aged kids. In a world where going to college is an option, people that chose not to attend would have to find their own creative ways of paving a career would have to discover it on their own. If people like Thiel genuinely want to make college optional, they need to change how these entrepreneurs think, not the amount of money in their bank accounts.
Brad,
ReplyDeleteYour post is interesting! Before it, I never even thought of this unique fourth path of education (or in this case, not getting further education). I think this pathway is interesting, however it is one that many people would not be successful in. I think the most intelligent people in our societies are the ones who would succeed in this way.
Although Thiel's program gives students another option to pursue their goals without the cost of college hanging over their heads, it is not an option that will ever become common for students. This program awards only 20 students a year, that's it. People like Thiel seem to get lucky by having the intelligence and the right timing, causing great success.
In our current society, college seems to be the prevailing path of education. With costs of college rising, I think a better option for Thiel would be to set up a scholarship foundation instead of giving large sums of money to a select few students. His program is great for the students who are in it, but his education-less option will only be a dream for millions of other students.
Brad,
ReplyDeleteI found your post to be very thought provoking. As I begin my college career, I see these kinds of stories in the media happening more and more. Such example as Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg , and a number of other ultra-successful young men were all college drop-outs. The unbelievable wealth that these men have obtained at a young age and without a college degree has me really thinking about whether college is even necessary. No, I do not have a great idea like those of Bill Gates and Zuckerberg, and I therefore will stay in school. However, these examples seemingly discredit the value of the all-important college degree of today’s age. Here is my theory; college is necessary since it provides a much safer procedure to getting a decent job. Students do, however, pay (literally) for their cautious decision through loans and tuition. Gates and Zuckerberg could have easily crashed and burned. I am sure that of all these college drop-outs with the next “big idea” probably 1 in 10,000?/100,000?/1,000,000? find even a moderate amount of success. That is why college is necessary. Yes, with tuition, intense competition, and the unknown of whether they will get a job, college does seem like a huge risk. But this risk is nowhere near the risk college drop-outs run.
In addition to this, I can’t help but wonder what would happen if universities acted the same as the Thiel Fellowship and simply gave degrees free of charge. Would this foster in too much competition? Would a degree still hold the same merit? Furthermore, what if this Thiel Fellowship develops the same problems as universities today? When hearing about Thiel’s group of “students” I thought of an extremely small college probably similar to a college that has just begun. Would this school eventually develop into a trade school, focused on creating new ideas and inventions?