last fall there was an episode of Who Makes Cents that i wasn't super thrilled about, based on the title and description. it seemed like it was a topic i already knew everything about, but i listened to it anyway because i was in a stupid long car line for a covid test. i'm glad i did, because it was revelatory. it went way deeper into US post secondary education history. if you haven't listened to Who Makes Cents: A History of Capitalism, it's not like most of the podcast space where there are some clever, amusing personalities who deep dive a topic and condense their learning into a fun format. WMC has fewer episodes and is a product of UC-Berkley. it's completely free. the host(s) read an author's entire book on a topic and then have the author on, asking pointed questions to get to the meat of the book. the author is some published faculty who has dedicated years to a topic and published a book about it. it's one of the most informative shows i listen to.
anyway, in this episode the author talks a bit about how, in the designing of the GI Bill, the Adults In The Room all assumed that discharged enlisted soldiers would stick to their place and only access the benefits package for trade schools. they believed the working class / the children of the working class had no interest in a classical/broad education in the arts, history, social sciences, etc. the explosion of young people pursuing a university education completely caught the power structure off guard and as its impacts reverberated through society in the 60s, 70s, they pulled out all the stops to try and strangle it through policy, propaganda and financialization. one can see the impacts today with complex student loan products, state funding cuts for HE to balloon costs, and the heavy propaganda push to make education seem like a bad "investment" for the individual.
last fall there was an episode of Who Makes Cents that i wasn't super thrilled about, based on the title and description. it seemed like it was a topic i already knew everything about, but i listened to it anyway because i was in a stupid long car line for a covid test. i'm glad i did, because it was revelatory. it went way deeper into US post secondary education history. if you haven't listened to Who Makes Cents: A History of Capitalism, it's not like most of the podcast space where there are some clever, amusing personalities who deep dive a topic and condense their learning into a fun format. WMC has fewer episodes and is a product of UC-Berkley. it's completely free. the host(s) read an author's entire book on a topic and then have the author on, asking pointed questions to get to the meat of the book. the author is some published faculty who has dedicated years to a topic and published a book about it. it's one of the most informative shows i listen to.
anyway, in this episode the author talks a bit about how, in the designing of the GI Bill, the Adults In The Room all assumed that discharged enlisted soldiers would stick to their place and only access the benefits package for trade schools. they believed the working class / the children of the working class had no interest in a classical/broad education in the arts, history, social sciences, etc. the explosion of young people pursuing a university education completely caught the power structure off guard and as its impacts reverberated through society in the 60s, 70s, they pulled out all the stops to try and strangle it through policy, propaganda and financialization. one can see the impacts today with complex student loan products, state funding cuts for HE to balloon costs, and the heavy propaganda push to make education seem like a bad "investment" for the individual.
https://whomakescents.libsyn.com/elizabeth-tandy-shermer-on-student-loans-and-higher-education
Funny that it was about that time was when the media started pushing the idea of being smart as uncool.