Got a degree? Whatever.
POSTED BY prbythebook ON December 9, 2011
Websighting: Article on Amanda Krauss by USA Today reminds me of what I wanted to be.
By Emily Southard-Bond
When I was six I had a very clear idea of what I wanted to be. I had very little desire to fly a plane, become the president, or be a glamorous movie star. The dream-jobs that many little girls and boys have didn’t appeal to me. What I wanted to be, above all else, was a nun. Specifically, a shopping nun. The habits were far too boring , the dull black and white color scheme needed at the very least a bit of hot pink plastic bling (another favorite of my childhood) to jazz up the heavenly duds. My chosen career wasn’t due to a particularly pious childhood, but had everything to do with The Sound of Music VHS I watched with a religious devotion.
By seven, the dream had faded and throughout high school and the better part of college I bounced from majors and ideal jobs until landing on my current path. But what if I hadn’t spent so many years in college swinging from Economics (Wallstreet, screaming in the pits phase) to Women’s Studies (switched after reading The Beauty Myth)? What would I have gained or lost? Did I really need to become a few hours shy of two degrees? Would I have been better equipped for the real world, certainly in less debt, if I had skipped the whole thing? As in, not gone to college at all?
This is exactly the sort of questions Amanda Krauss, former Vanderbilt University Professor. creator of WorstProfessorEver.com, and former client of PR by the Book, started to courageously ask. Amanda’s the pink elephant in the dean’s office reciting Greek to online degree holders, and countering a frightening new catch p
hrase, “A masters is the new bachelors,” with vocational school or no school at all!
The staggering number of unemployed Americans is enough to frighten anyone into hiding out in the relatively safe confines of academia (if you haven’t already tanked out your credit doing so) until the economy becomes a bit more inviting to Anthropology majors.
But what Amanda is saying, is to not hide out or continue to walk further into debt for degrees that hold little functionality in the world today. To find yourself not in college, but out and you and your checkbook will be all the happier.
USA Today recently wrote an article about Amanda’s seemingly anti-college movement. But it isn’t anti-education that she’s preaching, simply practical sense and less rigidity to your educational standards, “There’s nothing wrong with kicking around for a couple of years to decide what you want to do instead of spending all that money with no idea of what you want to do.” Absolutely, there’s nothing wrong with giving a new high-school grad a bit of room, and perhaps an internship that helps them develop a clearer notion of what career they are fit and want to have. And to not shy away in an almost classist distaste for vocational schools, assuming that without a degree from an accredited university you’ll be doomed to a mediocre lifestyle.
Amanda burned her academic accolades, left the ivy league and now resides as a Web developer in Austin’s tech scene, where she’s much happier. And who knows? Maybe I’ll ditch my diploma for a jewelry business specializing in bedazzled nun habits!
For more information on Amanda Krauss, check out her site Worst Professor Ever. She can also be seen performing in the “edutainment” group, Dionysium based in Austin, TX. Austinites can come see her (and the rest of the cast) perform once a month!
Tags: Amanda Krauss, Anti-College, Dionysium, The Beauty Myth, The Sound of Music, USA Today
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