Why do so many citizens of the world long to reach the shores of the United States
Why is the United States home to some of the most outstanding innovations the world has ever known
It is because our nation is known as the land of opportunity, a place where a person, no matter his or her background, has the right to work hard and achieve. This is what attracts the masses, a chance to put God-given abilities into action.
But lately, that seems to be more of a sentiment and less of a reality.
Last week, the United States Department of Justice announced indictments of many prominent and wealthy parents for an elaborate scheme that facilitated bribery and cheating to get their students into prominent universities.
As I digested this story, the question that stood tallest in my mind was how the United States of America has turned into a place where status is so dependant upon where someone places in higher education.
The U.S. is the land of creating, building, achieving and earning. Higher education can be an extremely useful tool in facilitating those qualities. But I fear we are becoming a place where the names of institutions weigh the heaviest when measuring success.
The list of world-changing creators who either never attended college or dropped out well short of obtaining a degree is staggering: Steve Jobs (founder of Apple), Bill Gates (founder of Microsoft), Dave Thomas (founder of Wendy’s), Soichiro Honda (founder of Honda), Ray Kroc (founder of McDonald’s), Rush Limbaugh (the most listened to radio host of all time), Stephen Spielberg (legendary Hollywood director), Oprah Winfrey (iconic broadcaster) and many, many others, not to mention American presidents, such as George Washington and Abraham Lincoln.
There are also numerous examples of successful people who attended and finished college. And let me be clear — as someone who is incredibly privileged to have had the opportunity to go to college, this is not intended to bash higher education per se. Rather, it is intended as an objection to a system that puts an unhealthy amount of emphasis on if and where a person graduates from college.
Despite the rhetoric we often hear from politicians, the U.S. offers tools and opportunity for anyone to use their God-given creativity and ingenuity in a way that is unmatched by the rest of the world.
But what are we emphasizing to today’s young people
What are we rewarding as a society
Will the next generation of leaders understand that America was made great — not by its institutions nor by its political leaders — but by hard-working people, innovators and creators?
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