Entry

In his article, Joel Batterman argues education is ‘overrated.’ Joel Batterman is a graduate student in University of Michigan and complete undergraduate program in Reed College. He first satirically addresses President Obama’s speech in University of Michigan few weeks ago, which he insists President Obama does not acknowledge the crucial cause of the rising tuition fees. He states “runaway over-development of American education in response to an exaggerated labor market focus on educational credentials, a phenomenon with hugely regressive implications” (The Michigan Daily). The author states this phenomenon as “credential inflation,” arguing the requirement of achieving high degree of education to become fixed safely in society. He urges “credential inflation” does not stop, which will keep increase the social expectation of obtaining high degree education. Thus, people will spend more money and their time to obtain higher degree, which might completely remove youth in people’s life. The author claims that if the higher education successfully produces students with skills and talent; however, the author urges, the higher education does not successfully educate students. To students, university is not a place to learn knowledge, but it is a place to earn degree to fulfill the high credential expectation the society requires. In order to achieve high credential expectation, the competition occurs from the lower education. And the competition is completely biased in favor of high socioeconomic status, since education institution with high prestige and better possibility of entering prestigious universities also require high tuition fee. Thus, as more people obsess with the higher education, more the gap between low and high class will increase and higher education credential will be established.