Rural Americans and College

A few days ago, Joshua Dolezal wrote in The Recovering Academic about rural Americans. The essay's title was "Rural Americans Aren't Going to College. Should They?" and it drew on his personal experience as a rural Montana native who went to college and became an academic. Joshua compares his life with that of friends and relatives who did not follow the same path. I thought his observation that there were paths to success that did not involve college degrees was unsurprising but probably needed to be said. One of the counterarguments to that observation is that, statistically, people with college degrees on average earn twice as much in their lifetimes as people without. But, as Joshua observed, people can gain knowledge and skill without going to college and many become experts in valuable trades, crafts, and professions. That takes effort and initiative; just like excelling in academia does.

The difference in the lifetime earnings averages says something different to me. It's not talking about the women and men who follow their interests to become expert bakers or steamfitters or carpenters or plumbers and earn comfortable livings, versus the folks who pursue an academic goal and become lawyers or physicians or scientists or teachers. The "lifetime median income" story is about people who don't really try that hard. Who don't find a passion or an interest to pursue; who don't put much effort into their work. For them, I think it's true that a vague, bland job in an office will pay them twice as much, in a lifetime, as a vague, bland job in a factory or warehouse.

Now you might think I'm being mean, but I don't intend to be. I'm not saying that everybody should be passionate about their job, although I think folks who are excited about what they're doing each day probably live happier, more fulfilling lives. But some people prioritize other aspects of life and go to work to support the things they really care about, whether that's family or an avocation. Obviously, there's a lot behind this issue of vocation and avocation, work versus life, and where people find meaning in their lives -- and it's all beyond the scope of this post. My point was just that the issue Joshua raised is the tip of a very massive iceberg.

Joshua also criticized Montana governor Steve Bullock for parroting the talking point that rural broadband was some sort of panacea. I tend to agree, although it's worth noting that even rural folks like The Daily Yonder advocate for broadband. Personally, I just got internet in my Saint Paul apartment. The plan I chose has a 350 Mb per second transfer speed, which is only a third of the gigabit speed I get from my fiber-optic-based connection in Bemidji provided by my rural cooperative. I can't really notice the difference.

Joshua described his "bookish" youth, and I was reminded of my own suburban New England boyhood. I also read C.S. Lewis and Chaim Potok (and wrote my English AP exam essay on My Name Is Asher Lev). The key element in both of our experiences, I suspect, was a parent who put books in our hands. I agree, however, that there's something special and important about "surrounding yourself with like-minded people". Typically that has happened in college, but does it need to? The example of Joshua's Grandpa Herman is telling (and really well-narrated): without much formal education, he developed a character and a firm handshake that remained as muscle memory, even when he had lost all his "knowledge" to the point where he no longer recognized his grandson. This is an example of important, deep learning that has almost nothing to do with academic study.

I was less convinced by Joshua's implication that rural people are more direct or straight-shooting and may be thus more immune to either academic BS (in the pages of the PMLA) or the allure of shallow self-marketing. I liked the metaphor of the line to get onto the Eagle Hunt water slide and his daughter finally deciding it wasn't worth the wait. I thought it was brilliant (and I believe!) that the kids preferred playing with kittens at an animal shelter to the amusement park.

Joshua ended with Willa Cather's paraphrase of Alexandre Dumas, that "to make drama, all you need is one passion and four walls". This returns, for me, to the point I made above. It's about passion, the thing the lifetime median income statistics can't capture. Again, I'm not saying we shouldn't be concerned about these average outcomes for people with or without college degrees. But, as Joshua demonstrated, there's more to the story. And I think the main element of that more, is motivation.

This is an issue I don't think institutions serving rural students have really engaged with. Before I was laid off in an enrollment-related budget crisis, the rural university I worked in tried to market itself to first-generation collegians in northern Minnesota, including members of the three tribal reservations surrounding Bemidji. The administration's focus was almost entirely on vocational training (business, nursing, K-12 teachers). The only thing they thought would ignite students' enthusiasm was sports, so they're desperately trying to preserve the school's D1 hockey program, even if it means cutting more faculty. But this is a self-fulfilling prophecy, isn't it? If the university's leaders (and even much of its faculty) can't get excited about learning, then learning won't be exciting. Students excited about learning won't come. Students who do come will have it drilled into them that learning is some sort of tedious but necessary chore whose goal is to prepare them for a tedious but necessary job. The university is creating the world it's complaining about. How often do we do this, throughout society?