Who Needs College?


Everyone, says Michelle Obama in a recent speech to Washington, D.C., high school students. It was the first stop in the First Lady’s cross-country speaking tour aimed at inspiring more young people to pursue post-secondary education.

Her critics dispute the value (and expense) of a college degree at a time when increasingly credits are amassed through MOOCs (massive open online courses) and at for-profit universities. Liberal arts education and elite colleges are also under scrutiny, seen as refuges from the real world for the privileged few—not unlike the Studio of Gratifying Discourse.

—Alex Bortolot, Content Strategist, November 13

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Image: Carolyn Kaster/AP

Source: Emmerie Huetteman, “First Lady’s New Initiative: College, ‘Whatever It Takes’,” New York Times, 11/12/13