(2)

My friend received another degree this month. She became a B.A, M.A., M.A. or as we fondly call her, a Bamama. These latest degree raised her academic temperature and the quality of her resume. In fact my friend Bamama officially became qualified to unemployed in yet a better class of jobs.

Let me explain. When she got a B.A. in philosophy four years ago at the cost of $12,000 (them was the bargain basement days), Bamama had the choice between becoming an overeducated waitress or an overeducated office worker. So she became an overeducated day-camp counselor and went back to school.

The next year, for $4000, she got a degree in library science. Now, qualified as a library assistant, she won a job as an overeducated part-time library assistant. In her off-hours, she became an overqualified clerk at a cheese counter. Now she went back to school again. $5000 later, she is qualified not only as librarian, but as a school librarian, teacher, administrator, etc., for a school system in need of an efficient, caring, well-educated Bamama. No such luck or, rather no such system.

So, Bamama has done the only logical thing: applied for and been accepted for a Ph. D program. With the degree, Bamamaphd, three years older and deeper in debt, would be qualified as college professor and might therefore be able to find a job as an overqualified school librarian. But the problem is not uniquely hers.

Eighty percent of the recent college graduates are doing work which was once done quite capably by people without college degrees. They may be getting the jobs once filled by no graduates, but they are not automatically filling the spots once guaranteed by a degree. In fact, by 1985, 2.5 college graduates will be competing for every “college” job. This is the name of the 1980s war game called Defensive Education. As the supply of more highly educated labor increases, if they do not go to college, others will and they will not find their current job open to them.

As more and more people go to college, a degree no longer guarantees who will get ahead. But the lack of a degree still can determine who will fall behind. We keep raising the education threshold to the job market.

This is the sort of the truth that makes us feel trapped and cynical and furious. Trapped into paying a fortune,not for advance but for defense. Cynical about the real motivation for “Higher Education.”

What is the problem discussed in the passage?

What does the author mean by “Defensive Education”?

What does the author address her friend? What is the effect in identifying her friend in this way?

What is the author’s attitude towards “higher education”?