By Bruce Goodmansen |

You know something is seriously wrong with our nation’s universities when the ultra-liberal Bill Maher vigorously advised our youth, on his nationally syndicated cable TV show, to stay far away from college because “it just makes you stupid.” Clearly the majority of Americans agree with Bill’s denunciation, for according to a survey by Gallup, just 14 percent of Americans—and only 11 percent of business leaders—strongly agreed that graduates have the necessary skills and competencies to succeed in the workplace.

Charles J. Sykes, author of Failed U: The False Promise of Higher Education, succinctly describes the circus-like campus atmosphere that is currently indulged by university students:

The four-year or longer sojourn in the groves of academe is a kaleidoscopic experience of classrooms, frats, lectures, keg parties, all-nighters, political correctness, hookups, alcohol, athletic spectacle, and the occasional intellectual insight.

At some point in their college experience, students are thankful that their parents have only the vaguest idea what they have been paying for on campus—not just the extracurricular drunken feasts but also the bizarre cultural intolerances, the obsessive rituals of conformity, the absentee faculty, teaching assistants unable to speak English, the hair-trigger racial, cultural, gender, and political sensitivities, and the junk courses with their effort-free As.

To drive this point home, a progressive college preparatory book entitled: The Her Campus Guide to College Life (please note the absence of a Him in the title), unwittingly exposed the amoral world that is commonly experienced nowadays on a college campus near you. The book’s contents are filled with wicked subtitles:

PREVENTING THEFT • PROTECTING AGAINST INTRUDERS • STAYING SAFE AT PARTIES AND BARS • BEING SAFE WHILE HOOKING UP • STAYING SAFE LATE AT NIGHT • PREVENTING SEXUAL ASSAULT • STALKERS • EATING DISORDERS IN COLLEGE • DRINKING • SMOKING • VAPING • DRUGS • STRESS • ANXIETY • DEPRESSION • EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT HAVING SAFE SEX • HOOK-UPS • SEX • ROTTEN ROMANTIC RELATIONSHIPS • FRENEMIES • TOXIC FRIENDSHIPS • ROOMMATE CONTRACTS

What responsible parent would knowingly want to send her beautiful child to this depraved environment for four years? But if not college, then what? Well, realize that there are over 12,000 occupations to choose from, yet the typical university offers roughly 76 majors—just 76 career choices. It’s this vast world of 12,000 occupations that is largely ignored by high school guidance counselors, who for decades have forcefully issued a dire edict: any high school graduate who fails to attain the right to walk the hallowed halls of a university will be banned from achieving the American Dream. The lie worked. College was tattooed on nearly everyone’s lips, and the nation’s parents suddenly took issue with the son or daughter who wanted to join the ranks of the “washouts” who were enrolled in a “lowly” trade school.

So now, the country is inundated with unskilled college graduates who are recipients of useless diplomas, a mountain of debt, and a seething hatred toward capitalism and Old Glory. Nevertheless, because of a staunch belief in the college “dream,” a young alumnus will proudly reference to potential employers the degree she earned five years ago in Women’s Studies from State University, even though she is currently living in her childhood bedroom while earning $13.65 an hour as a coffee shop barista. Meanwhile, due to a huge shortage of skilled trade professionals, millions of open and high-paying trade positions will be left vacant. The nation urgently needs more security, fire, and service technicians, solar energy technicians, 3D printing technicians, pipe fitters, sales representatives, plumbers, pile-driver operators, drone pilots, stonemasons, diesel mechanics, dental hygienists, cybersecurity experts, glaziers, physical therapy assistants, reinforcing iron and rebar workers, pilots, and elevator mechanics—who can earn $50 an hour without a college degree!

In reality, the land of opportunity is found in over 30,000 apprenticeship programs that will pay a student to learn a blue- or white-collar skill. It is also found in trade schools, cyber bootcamps, sales, community colleges with corporate alliances, mentorships, entrepreneuring, and jobs offered to high school graduates. So long as a young adult can solve every day math problems, can read, write and speak well, it is within this vast world of career training opportunities—offered outside the college arena—that young adults will find the positions in life that will be both financially and spiritually rewarding.

For example, we had a deeply shy young man come to our home to repair our refrigerator ice making machine. After nine months of training, and 14 months of work experience, he is now earning $72,000 annually at the age of 22. Then, too, the new CEO of Costco started working for the company as a forklift driver. And the high school dropout John Marriot, founder of Marriot Hotels, started his career as a long john salesman to lumberjacks in the Pacific northwest. There are millions of similar inspirational stories that serve to utterly destroy the college-is-superior myth—over and over and over again.

In summation, what do each of the following trade school programs have in common: Plumbing, Ship Building, Dental Hygienist, HVAC, and Surgical Technician? Well, they each provide a graduate with a real, high-paying job skill that will serve him or her for life. Now, let’s pick five Harvard University majors that are deemed by its governing board to be worthy of a $217,000 tuition price tag (excluding room and board and other fees): Folklore and Mythology, African and African American Studies, History of Art and Architecture, International Relations, and Women, Gender, and Sexuality. Seriously, what job skills does a Folklore and Mythology graduate bring to the table? And couldn’t this subject be mastered inexpensively simply by reading $300 worth of textbooks? And how are these graduates going to afford to pay a $2,500 monthly student loan payment while possibly earning $100 a day for regaling entertaining folklore stories at a Renaissance fair?

So, Bill Maher was spot on when he emphatically declared: “Don’t go to college!” For their sake, and the sake of our country, may our young adults heed his clarion warning.

Bruce Goodmansen is the president of Fire Up the Soul, LLC, and the author of the bestselling book: 100% Success Without College, which can be reviewed at anythingbutcollege.com. He is often invited to speak at conservative and homeschooling events.