re: Why does our educational system glorify stem and 4 year degrees?

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You are putting everything on intellect,

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IQ is largely destiny.

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Next time your AC craps out, read a book and fix it.

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I theoretically could. Hell last time I had AC issues the home/garden board told me what I had to do. However, like with mowing my lawn, it isn't efficient for me to do the work. I did over $1000 in value of work while the AC person repaired the issue (labor was only like $250 or something).

Again, this is like mowing my lawn.

Note: when I was poor and a baby lawyer, I did learn how to replace a headlight in the dark at the Jennings Walmart by using Youtube. I did it in the parking lot. That opportunity necessitated developing the skill and not only was it too expensive to pay someone, the opportunity wasn't there.

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Man shut up with the IQ shite. There are different types of aptitudes and you boiling everything down to "IQ" is just stupid.

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I'm sorry I thought this was the Tigerdroppings Political Board and not the sociology department of Harvard.

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And it is a form of bigotry.

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OK maybe the sociology department of Oberlin.

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Looking down on people

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The only people being "looked down on" in this thread are people with STEM degrees, who are apparently lucky to be able to pump their own gas

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IQ is largely destiny.

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Is not the same as suggesting that the high school programmer nerd with functional autism and social anxiety disorder would become a more successful carpenter than the kid helping his mom sell oranges from a stolen shopping cart off I-10.

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Is not the same as suggesting that the high school programmer nerd with functional autism and social anxiety disorder would become a more successful carpenter than the kid helping his mom sell oranges from a stolen shopping cart off I-10.

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Why doesn't the kid selling oranges also have functional autism and SAD to compare?

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Why does our educational system glorify stem and 4 year degrees?

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In many instances, society operates a bit like a metronome. It sees a shortcoming and rushes to a solution point. The momentum of the rush often carries it to an extreme end. From there society realizes that there is no a different (or opposite) problem, but momentum is a difficulty beast to turn so it only slowly turns back the other way before eventually picking up momentum in going on that direction. Eventually the issue comes to another extreme so society reverses (or changes direction) again and the same behavior repeats.

Prior to the Baby Boomers, college was (for the most part) the domain of the very wealthy and/or incredibly gifted. Back then, anyone who graduated from college was pretty much guaranteed to get a job which would provide them a lucrative salary. Also, back then there wasn't much in the way of degrees with practically no utility (gender studies, art appreciation, etc).

During this time, there were many more blue-collar than white-collar jobs. Someone without a degree could get a white-collar (read: higher paying and less physically demanding) job, but most were doing manual labor (to varying levels).

It was drilled into the heads of Boomers that they should go to college if they really wanted to get those white-collar jobs, and that's just what they did. This was, by far, the largest generation to enroll in higher learning and colleges and universities expanded to encompass that. Along with that, Boomers ended up influencing the atmosphere on college campuses where more of a push for more philosophical studies (as opposed to what we now consider "stem") came about.

This allowed for the increase in the different types of degrees available which enticed more students to go to college. Society was benefiting from a more educated population so the underlying belief became "if this much is good, then doing even more should be even better". This is also at a time where the growing number of college graduates meant that competition for jobs moved more and more toward a college degree being a mandatory requirement instead of just a big edge.

So the underlying philosophy shifted subtly from "you should get a degree because it helps tremendously" to "you MUST get a 4-year degree in order to just be considered for a specific job". In many instances we're even at a point where a graduate degree is required to move up beyond a certain job level.

What we've been seeing over the last decade or so is the momentum starting to move back as the focus on competing for white-collar jobs has caused there to be a bit of a vacuum in blue-collar jobs (AC repair, mechanics, carpenters, plumbers, etc) (this is also aided by an increasing amount of degrees no longer being able to pay what it cost to attain them).

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yes, a person who can get a 4-year degree in computer science would have problem with plumbing or being a mechanic

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That can absolutely be the case. I seent it, multiple times.

Vo/Tech programs should start in high school. More emphasis should be made for vo/tech in community colleges. Non-STEM programs should be phased out in universities except for those that the graduate has a realistic opportunity to make a decent living. I don't see education listed as a STEM program but obviously we need teachers and hate to say but attorneys, too. Phase out the federal guaranteed student loans and if a student needs a loan, get it the normal way (or work harder in high school and get scholarships).

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Well I have to say that anyone who reads the original post and interprets it as an attack on stem or advocacy for neglecting stem is a bit off on their interpretation.

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Where did I say the OP was an attack on stem?

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$$$ for the university is the answer. Student loans and grants are cash cows for the universities. Why would they want to give them up?