That more people should go to college is usually taken as a given. People with college degrees make a lot more than people without them, and that difference has been growing. But does that mean that we should help more kids go to college–or that we should make it easier for people who didn’t go to college to make a living?

应该让更多人上大学往往被视为理所当然。有大学学位的人比没有大学学位的人挣钱多得多，而这种差距还在扩大。但这就意味着我们应该帮助更多孩子上大学吗？或者，我们应该让未上大学的人更容易谋生吗？

We may be close to maxing out on the first strategy. Our high college drop-out rate–40% of kids who enroll in college don’t get a degree within six years–may be a sign that we’re trying to push too many people who aren’t suited for college to enroll. It has been estimated that most people in their 20s who had college degrees were not in jobs that required them: another sign that we are pushing kids into college who will not get much out of it but debt.

在第一条策略上我们几乎尽了全力。我们大学的高辍学率或许表明我们在竭力推动太多不适合上大学的人入学–40%的读大学的孩子在6年内没拿到学位。据估计，在拥有大学学位的20多岁的人当中，大多数人并未从事与专业相关的工作。这也表明了我们在把孩子们推进大学，而他们除了债务却几无所得。

The benefits of putting more people in college are also oversold. Part of the college wage premium is an illusion.

使更多人读大学的好处也被过分颂扬了。大学毕业生工资提升有一部分属于假象。

People who go to college are, on average, smarter than people who don’t. In an economy that increasingly rewards intelligence, you’d expect college grads to pull ahead of the pack even if their diplomas signified nothing but their smarts.

读大学的人一般比不读大学的人聪明一些。在一个日益奖赏才智的经济体制下，你总会期望大学毕业生成为同龄人中的佼佼者，即使他们的文凭除了意味着其聪明外别无其他。

College must make many students more productive workers. But at least some of the apparent value of a college degree, and maybe a lot of it, reflects the fact that employers can use it as a rough measure of job applicants’ intelligence and willingness to work hard.

大学必须使许多学生成为更具生产力的工人。然而，在大学学位的表面价值中，至少有一些—甚至更多—能够反映这样一个事实：雇主们可以把它作为一个粗略标准，衡量求职者的聪明才智和积极肯干精神。

We could probably increase the number of high school seniors who are ready to go to college and likely to make it to graduation. But let’s face it: college isn’t for everyone, especially if it takes the form of four years of going to classes on a campus.

我们可能会增加愿意读大学的高中生人数，他们也很可能成功读到大学毕业。但我们必须直面一个问题：大学不是为所有人开设的，尤其是以在校园里上4年课这样一种形式。

To talk about college this way may sound élitist. It may even sound philistine, since the purpose of a liberal-arts education is to produce well-rounded citizens rather than productive workers.

如此谈论大学也许听上去有点精英主义的味道。它甚至显得庸俗不堪，因为文科教育的目的是造就全面发展的公民，而不是生产性的工人。

But perhaps it is more foolishly élitist to think that going to school until age 22 is necessary to being well-rounded, or to tell millions of kids that their future depends on performing a task that only a minority of them can actually accomplish.

但是，也许更加愚蠢的经营论调是，认为在学校读书读到22岁是全面发展所必需，或者告诉无数孩子，他们的未来取决于完成一项事实上只有少数人才能完成的任务。

The good news is that there have never been more alternatives to the traditional college. Online learning is more flexible and affordable than the brick-and-mortar model of higher education. Certification tests could be developed so that in many occupations employers could get more useful knowledge about a job applicant than whether he has a degree.

令人欣慰的是，传统大学之外的选择现在前所未有之多。网络教育比传统的高等教育模式更灵活，更负担得起。可以发展多种证书考试，这样在许多行业中，雇主们就能了解与求职者有关的更多有用信息，而不只是看他是否有一纸文凭。

Career and technical education could be expanded at a fraction of the cost of college subsidies. Occupational licensure rules could be relaxed to create opportunities for people without formal education.

可以扩大职业与技术教育，而其花费仅相当于大学补贴的一部分。可以放宽职业许可证发放规则，给没有接受正规教育的人创造机会。

It is absurd that people have to get college degrees to be considered for good jobs in hotel management or accounting–or journalism. It is inefficient, both because it wastes a lot of money and because it locks people who would have done good work out of some jobs.

实属荒谬的一点是，只有获得大学学位的人，才能有机会得到酒店管理、财会——抑或新闻行业的好工作。这是一种低效之见，因为它既浪费了大量金钱，也将本能干好某些工作的人挡在门外。

The tight connection between college degrees and economic success may be a nearly unquestioned part of our social order. Future generations may look back and shudder at the cruelty of it.

大学学位与经济成功之间的紧密联系可能是我们社会秩序中几乎不受质疑的部分。当后辈人回首时，可能会对它的残酷性不寒而栗。

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