What “School” Produces

The popular idea among the far right that our schools in America turnout gutless liberal snowflakes seems to be expanding without bounds.  The meme here is a good example of how far this can be taken, and how stupid people have to be in order to believe it.

Other than Mark Zuckerberg, who dropped out of Harvard when it became clear that the FaceBook opportunity needed immediate attention, I don’t believe there is a single other CEO of a Fortune 1000 company, with his 8-figure salary, who doesn’t have a graduate school education.

Each of these folks has a strong academic background that helped them develop discipline, inventiveness, and analytical skills. Most tacked an MBA on the back of that to increase their business acumen while honing their management and leadership skills. Some, of course, who wanted to specialize in some focused arena, say chemical engineering, went in the appropriate direction post-grad.

In addition, there are dozens of careers outside of industry that yield high incomes.  America’s 1.01 million doctors, to take an example, aren’t doing too badly. Anesthesiologists, surgeons, obstetricians-gynecologists, family medicine physicians, etc., average about $300,000 in annual income.  I’m happy to report that these people need excellent educations. 

Is a college degree required for a successful acting career?  Of course not, but it appears that approximately 90% of America’s top actors have BAs or BFAs.