Nappy Headed Black Child

As january approaches and grad school comes i beginning to think about what this means in reality as opposed to the symbolic prestige that is attached to it. In this past year its done very little for me but theoretically provide access to grad school (no funding)and collect dust as most of my employment the very little there has been has been by virtue of other skills. We attach loads of symbolic meaning to a degree in terms intelligence, expertise, the "final say" but the heaviest i would say is this idea of social mobility and financial security.

Consider this article

Here are the highlights

Furthermore, college graduates might earn more, but their higher earnings haven’t kept pace with the extra amount they’re now responsible for paying to go to college. People with bachelor’s degrees make 64 percent more than people without them. But that rate has been virtually the same since 2001, despite the fact that the cost of college has increased at twice the rate of inflation almost every year.

By some measures, recession has exacerbated the divide. The unemployment rate for workers 25-and-older with a bachelor’s degree or higher was 4.6% in August, for example, compared with 10.3% for those with just a high-school diploma. That’s a 5.7-percentage-point gap, compared with a gap of only 2.6 percentage points in December 2007 when the recession began.

school is costing more and netting less. Making MARKETABLE EDUCATION more and more of a privilege.

Even then should one obtain such a degree this recession and its aftermath has only exposed that it only makes you better suited to take advantage of scarce opportunities. Which make more education necessary hence grad school and more debt burden. The bachelor's degree is the new high school diploma. At least it is for me.

Which put me and my peers in a difficult position with a lot of questions. Where is the social mobility and financial security we were promised in middle and high school.

With the premium i place on being prepared i was doing my plan a plan b. For a moment i considered the armed forces. While some might be initially repulsed as i am every time i think about it. However resistant i may be to it, its still there. And if its there for me its there for many of my peers who may not have the options and advantages I do.

Consider the militarization of the dream act. Nothing feeds the war machine like poverty. And realistically ROTC and the money given to military members for education the ground work is laid for many only being able to achieve education through the war machine.

and before we get on our high horses ask yourselves...whos education have u supported so they wouldnt have to go to the military.

I think what scares me most are the things i might have to do to get by.