MTS, LITB, FKB, O&H, BB, Pfamily, etc... all push college. Was college really that big of a deal in the 50s, 60s, and 70s?

I know it's been a big deal since America switched to a service economy and not a manufacturing economy, but I was not aware enough for the earlier years.

I hated it, and I'd say it was big in the late 60s/early 70s. And there were no fluff courses back then. No political hacks teaching courses either.

Colleges weren't dumbed down for quotas in the 50s.

for lower & semi mid class is was presented as one of the more reliable ways to "make it / become affluent" vs a not so great factory job or worse ... (some factory jobs are goods ones as well)

and for me it actually paid off, my education degree has allowed me to become a state licensed professional (No degree / No license)

My dad was able to go using the G. I. Bill after WWII, and graduated in 1950. So even before the '50s, college was becoming more common you might say. Since Ward Cleaver served in the military (Seabees), maybe he had similar circumstances.

I've read a lot of good comments here. I think for many back during the time period in question, the idea of "sending your kids to college, so they can make something more of themselves than you did", was part of the American dream.

Me? I didn't feel like getting a full time job the moment I graduated high school, so college looked like a convenient solution. I likely was not alone in that regard.

I think for some, during Vietnam, going to college and enrolling in R.O.T.C. was a draft avoidance strategy. I remember hearing horror stories about guys who washed out, being told on their way out the door that their local draft board was being informed of their renewed eligibility.

For families living the upper middle class suburbs in the mid-west, yes it was a big deal. For rural and more working class folks, I'd say no. In reality, that hasn't changed all that much. I love LITB and I'm in the minority in my belief that it does an excellent job of representing American values of the greatest generation and their baby boomer children, but the economics of it were not a reality for the majority of the county.

For families living the upper middle class suburbs in the mid-west, yes it was a big deal. For rural and more working class folks, I'd say no. In reality, that hasn't changed all that much. I love LITB and I'm in the minority in my belief that it does an excellent job of representing American values of the greatest generation and their baby boomer children, but the economics of it were not a reality for the majority of the county.

You may be in the minority in the elite, today's-college-professor set, but here in what-they-view-as fly-over country, I'd bet you're not.

For families living the upper middle class suburbs in the mid-west, yes it was a big deal. For rural and more working class folks, I'd say no. In reality, that hasn't changed all that much.

What has changed is college itself. Now a lot of them are obsessed with political correctness, which discourages the free-flow of ideas. This is not good preparation for the real world.

That's not to say the effort isn't on to stop free speech in the real world--I'd hope that eventually that effort will fail.