I was absolutely amazed at a recent Wall Street Journal piece about a school from which students graduate debt free. (http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303380004579520261283934326) The piece describes how students at the College of the Ozarks are required to work during the school year to cover the cost of tuition. Some also work during the summers to cover room and board. Consequently, no debt.
More than requiring students to work to earn their tuition, this approach to higher education teaches more life lessons than do the "conventional" universities and colleges that are currently making headlines for depressing free speech, yielding to protests, awarding meaningless degrees, shutting out conservatives, denying Christian values, demanding self proclaimed diversity, teaching "white privilege," promoting intolerance, and contributing to student debt as students take 5, 6, or 7 years to be awarded an undergraduate degree. Personally, I believe working to earn one's education is invaluable.
You see, I worked throughout college. And by work I don't mean the 10 hours per week as a student assistant in some campus office. I worked 40-to-48 hours per week in a combination gas station/auto garage as a sales clerk, service writer, and gas pump jockey. I paid all my own bills, including all costs associated with my private college education. After the first two years, I lived off campus. And in the middle of my junior year I married my bride (who has hung in there for more than 43 years). We had a car, an apartment, our own furniture, a TV, and food on the table. Money was tight, so going out was a luxury. But we had fun and were happy. I'd go to school in the mornings and work from 1:00 PM - 10:00 PM three days a week and then full shifts every Saturday and Sunday. When the workplace changed its hours, my shifts changed to 11:00 AM to 8:00 PM five days per week. Through creative scheduling, I was able to complete my degree in the required four years. (By the way, in the summer between my junior and senior years, I spent a wonder 13 weeks at the Marine Corps Officer Candidate School in Quantio, Virginia. I actually took a pay cut during this time. Fortunately, my employer held my position and I went back to work and began classes the day after flying back from OCS.) While my grades were nothing to celebrate, at the end of my studies I was debt free, had money in the bank, and was awarded the bachelor's degree that enabled me to be commissioned in the United States Marine Corps. (As my career started, unlike our fellow Second Lieutenants and their wives, my wife and I were not saddled with large amounts of college debt, so we could do things others could not.)
My own experience and reading about the College of the Ozarks provide the following.
Point one: working through college leaves a student financially stable.
Point two: working through college teaches time management.
Point three: working through college provides invaluable job experience to take into the broader employment market.
Point four: working through college teaches self reliance.
Point five: working through college teaches that we can overcome obstacles in pursuit of our objectives.
Point six: a degree earned not only by academic pursuit, but by personally paying the associated costs, is infinitely more valuable than one paid for by the government or parents.
It would be far better for our country and our students if most colleges and universities adopted the College of teh Ozarks model.
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