I think I'd state it another way. We've overstated education as a path to a good job, but not the importance of education. Education is important in and of itself, specialization can indeed enhance one's job prospects, but general secondary education isn't or should not only be interpreted as a means to a job but rather a means to personal growth.
Im not saying we should all turn to soft majors, the contrary, there is too much of that, but we do need the GE classes even for line cooks and anyone else doing menial work. It should give us all a better understanding of that which affects our daily lives.
"Education" != "University". You never said that it did, but I just wanted to be clear on that. A line cook can read wikipedia and books from the library, or take community college or learning annex classes if he or she wants to further their education. Kahn academy, meetup groups, MOOCs, book clubs and autodidactic self study are a few of many ways to learn more about the world and grow as a person.
The question is, why don't more people avail themselves of these (mostly) free resources? I think that the answer is that the majority of people don't care, and don't feel as enriched by knowledge for the sake of knowledge as the average hn member, or even the average college student. After a hard day of menial work most people want to relax and watch tv or have a beer with friends. The majority of people care about "education" in as much as it can help them to get easier and higher paying jobs, as far from laboring as a line cook as possible. Let's not pretend that the average McDonald's worker is thirsting for knowledge about the humanities or would materially benefit from it in any way.
The idea that everyone should be pursuing secondary education seems like a bit of projection. If general education classes were beneficial to you, then that's great. But most people are more concerned with their families and relationships, paying their bills and enjoying life in their own way than they are with learning and personal growth. If a trade school is the best way for them to do those things, then so be it. Telling people to study things they aren't interested in because "it's good for them" probably isn't going to help much.
> I think that the answer is that the majority of people don't care, and don't feel as enriched by knowledge for the sake of knowledge as the average hn member, or even the average college student. After a hard day of menial work most people want to relax and watch tv or have a beer with friends.
From what I have seen of a lot of undergrads who are at college because it is "the thing to do", they treat their classwork as the menial work you mentioned above.
> Let's not pretend that the average McDonald's worker is thirsting for knowledge about the humanities or would materially benefit from it in any way.
I would like to examine how much the average humanities college student is thirsting for knowledge about the humanities, too.
Im not saying we should all turn to soft majors, the contrary, there is too much of that, but we do need the GE classes even for line cooks and anyone else doing menial work. It should give us all a better understanding of that which affects our daily lives.