Trevor Wiemann Midterm Post 2/3

In this post I will talk about the effect of an education, or lack thereof, on a person’s credibility and the stereotypes we give people who lack a college education (bachelor’s degree or higher). 

Just fifty years ago, not only were college graduates in the minority, but they were a rarity. In 1963 roughly eight percent of America held a college degree. These mainly males from very well off families. Needless to say, the uneducated stereotype did not exist. Now, 50 years later many people consider a lack of college education a sign of ignorance and, even worse, as a lack of success. I recently listened to a conversation where it was argued that to be a bright, well rounded citizen, one must get a college education. If not, you will be viewed as stupid and ignorant. What!? When did this view come about? Since when is it a sign of failure to not attend college? Unfortunately, America has developed a discrimination against high school graduates. 

We deny them jobs that would of been open to them just ten to twenty years ago. Many times high school graduates are automatically disqualified from even applying. Now of course there will be certain positions that will absolutely require a college degree, but many do not. According to Fricker, this is a testimonial injustice. What about all the extremely successful uneducated working people in the country? Do we give them the same discredit as say a lower to middle class person? This conundrum is the problem with discredit and discrimination. The actions of a few negatively affect the outlook on the majority. If you put uneducated people in the category of “stupid” and “not well rounded” guys like Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Steve Job must be included. They have to be failures because they didn’t graduate from a college don’t they? But wait, these guys own or owned multibillion dollar companies and are smarter than 99 percent of America...Furthermore, they would almost certainly never be given testimonial injustice. Ironically, Ivy league schools line up to have these guys speak at their graduation ceremonies. Now I know these are exceptional examples, but it still gives a great reason to take a second look at someone before assuming they are stupid or ignorant because they lack a college degree. When people propose that in order to be a well-rounded person, one must attend college, because college is the only place to obtain experience in a variety of subjects, I wonder what they think about enlisted military men and women. These men and women chose to forego a college education to serve our country. They do a job that requires no education about high school, but during their time in service they will learn and experience more than the average American will during his or her life. Most of the time we would not even consider discrediting anything an enlisted member of the military or veteran had to say, but when we view the group of non-college educated people as a whole we automatically view it has lacking credibility. The notion of a lack of degree equaling an automatic lack of success also needs to be examined. There are many people who never graduated college who become very successful in their lives.

 The problem is many of these people came from an older generation before the pressure to go to college was so big. Many opportunities for these people have been lost as the discredit given to them as increased.