A national poll from 2006 revealed
that only 60% of Americans believed that young people should be
taught the value of hard work and studying. One writer
commenting on this statistic tried to spin it positively, by
revealing that the figure was less than 40% among Europeans. But
there is one group today where just about 100% would support the
notion of hard work and study - people who are working for an
online college degree.
With the explosion of the "virtual world" of the Internet over
the past decade and a half, we have witnessed the construction
of a whole parallel world, except instead of brick and mortar
and 2-by-4's, the buildings are made of bits, bytes and computer
graphics. The grocery store down the street, the movie theater
downtown and the bookstore at the mall all have counterparts, as
well as competitors, in cyberspace. And now that colleges have
made the move, people have a choice of sitting in class for two
or four years or studying in a more flexible way, from home, to
get an online college degree.
Brave new world, indeed.
Getting a college degree is not
an easy thing to do, online or on campus. The research indicates
that a person who goes to an online college for a degree is less
likely to drop out, gets higher grades and has fewer
disciplinary issues. These were the same findings some 30 years
ago when an educational research group studied junior college
students. Because they were older, more settled and knew what
they wanted to do, junior college students, like today's online
students, were more motivated, focused and, ultimately,
successful in school.
There are economic and
practical reasons that getting an online college degree is
becoming a more popular option. People who previously could not
afford college are finding lower-cost online alternatives.
Parents of young children who could not get away even to a
nearby campus can now study from home. Workers who had to keep
their jobs and support families are scheduling their classes for
evenings and weekends.
Online colleges, trade schools
and training institutes have actually performed a remarkable
public service by making higher education, in the form of an
online college degree, available to more people. This in turn
increases the talent pool available to American industry and,
along with continuing technological advances, raises worker
productivity, economic forecasts and, ultimately, the gross
national product.
An educated populace is
required for the survival of any free, prosperous nation.
America is fortunate that, even though some 40% of the
population no longer respects the value of hard work and study,
there are enough people who do to keep us going and growing.
Those are the kind of people who work hard, get an online
college degree, get back to work - and then make a difference.
