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A number of radical education experts argue that the U.S. has become an overtrained society, producing too many specialists for too few jobs. Every year, more and more people enter colleges or universities; in fact, the number of American students currently exceeds the entire population of Switzerland. Yet 80% of all jobs available in the U.S. are within the capabilities of those with high school diplomas. "Even in periods of continued economic growth," says a recent report of the Commission on Human Resources and Advanced Education, "more than a fourth of the college graduates would be available to upgrade the educational level of occupations." What this means, in plain English, is that even without a recession, 25% of all graduates will be working at jobs for which a college education is not needed at all.
Dirty Work Movement
Whatever the faults of the U.S. educational system, it also has its glories. It made possible the miracles of modern technology and trained the scientists who sent man to the moon. For more students than any other nation can claim, it has provided the true Aristotelian education—"an ornament in prosperity and a refuge in adversity." But the system seems out of kilter with reality. What can be done about it? Colleges and students must realize that education is something entirely apart from insurance for a status job. This is particularly true of the liberal arts, which in their proper perspective are intended to instill wisdom and discernment, rather than specific knowledge that can later be traded in for a paycheck. Says Kansas Vice Chancellor Balfour: "Many people are at the university for the wrong reasons—because it gives them a different image than if they were to become mechanics or carpenters."
Balfour also maintains, "We've got to make ordinary work more respectable." In the current issue of Sodal Policy, M.I.T.'s Herbert J. Gans contemplates very ordinary work indeed. He presents a whimsical scenario for a Dirty Work Movement, which raises the pay of toilet cleaners and other menial laborers to $20 an hour, creating a new economic elite. As a result, everyone wants to go into dirty work, and the D.W.M. sets up educational prerequisites and a licensing system to keep out clean workers. Hippies even start wearing white shirts to express their sympathies for the new underclass.
President Nixon has tried to dignify menial work by exhortations. Although his choice of examples may have been unfortunate, he had a valid point when speaking about the job needs of those on welfare. He argued that there is as much dignity in scrubbing floors and emptying bedpans "as there is in any other work to be done in this country, including my own." Equally to the point was former HEW Secretary John Gardner's comment that "an excellent plumber is infinitely more admirable than an incompetent philosopher." Disconcerting though it may be to parents who have heavily invested in their children's educations, many of this year's graduates who are heading for alternative vocations may be on the right track.
The U.S. is still hugely productive and has an enormous potential for employment—21,741 different jobs are