Cap and Gown: 2026 Symbol of "Having Been Duped"

 Like the Roman Catholic Church, the institution of higher education has leveraged ritual. Very effectively.

A powerhorse part of that is the cap-and-gown graduates wear during the ritual celebrating receiving an academic degree. Starting back when the GI bill opened higher education to the masses that cap-and-gown symbol had signaled progress. Of a nation which now had the knowledge workers it needed. Of families who were movin' on up. Of individuals who could position and package the reality of having to earn a living as a "purpose-driven career." 

That symbolism was sticky, up to recently.

Kelly Services reports:

"According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 9.7% of bachelor's degree holders ages 20 to 24 were unemployed in September—up from 6.8% a year prior.

Meanwhile, underemployment, that is laboring at a job not requiring a degree, ranges from 42% to 52%.

Today The New York Times  features that shift of higher education from a platform for advancement to the making of the new lost generation. It's cruel but perhaps on the money to interpret the cap and gown as a generational marker of "having been duped."

Yet, enrollment is up. Is it a sense of entitlement to having the "college experience?" We boomers who might be the last lucky gen in America - cheap education, plum jobs with pensions, affordable real estate, Social Security/Medicare - treasure those four years as the best of times. Ah, friends who had the time to care about us. Fascinating subject matter in class. Partying all weekend. Lots of vacations.

However, the experience was low-cost. Annual tuition at my private liberal arts alma mater was $700. Room and board was also peanuts. Lots of paid work programs right within the college. Today, the total nut for four years is about $261,880. What if that had been invested in equities/bonds or real estate?  

Rituals, along with the embedded symbolism, can be seductive. What went into my First Communion - white dress, white vail, white candle, slow march down the church aisle - created the most memorable day of my life. So? I am no longer a Roman Catholic. 

In a few months 2.1 to 2.2 will be renting caps and gowns to participate in the pomp and ceremony of earning a BA/BS. Even then, though, if we've been talking to college students we know that they may already know this puts them on the wrong side of supply and demand. Not only that. There's a glut of college graduates per se.

Success is a mental game. Failure comes from being done in by the “committee” in your head.

Together, we liberate your thinking. Then we change your story. And, unleash success. Meanwhile, we focus on bringing in income. That puts you in a position of strength.

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