Summary Of Dark Age Ahead By Jane Jacobs

Jane Jacobs mentions in the third chapter of her book Dark Age Ahead that “education” has become an important aspect of the economy in the modern society. She talks about how education has been less cared for and that society has become obsessed with credentialing. Without achieving a minimum of a four-year university or college degree the person might as well be condemned to a work life of “flipping hamburgers.” The cost of it has become much of a necessity as that of a car, and for similar reasoning as well: without it, access to a profitable job is difficult or even impossible. Credentialing is not in the interest of the employers in the long run. In fact, it benefits the corporations’ departments of human resources in the short term. People who are assigned the task of choosing successful job applicants want them to have beneficial characteristics such as endurance, enthusiasm and the ability to cooperate and
Students noticed that the education they’re receiving was of cheap labour and quality yet monetarily expensive. As the idea of credentialing becomes more popular, there is an expansion of enrollments. The increase of students enrolled in universities has left not much time for personal contact with the professor to give thorough feedback. University models have become like business models from the 60s; quantity trumps quality. However, after a decade or so, students gave in to credentialing and stopped protesting, realizing that the only way to an acceptable adulthood is through credentialing. Therefore, they chose to take a part of credentialing by themselves rather than being forced into it. In addition, as time passed by, a 2-year college diploma wasn’t enough, bumping the college education into a second-class education. Some community colleges have tried to promote themselves by gaining a government license to grant four-year degrees, upstaging a diploma. Therefore, credentialing is a never-ending