From the Editor: Grads, look to the books before the bucks

Shooting pictures at the recent Morgan City and Berwick high school graduations brought on a predictable bout of nostalgia. Ah, to be 18 again.
Then again, I’m not sure I’d want to be 18 again. I flipped my tassel in 1976, and kids, you don’t know what it was like back then.
Inflation scared everyone, especially at the gas pump. Violent crime was on the rise across the country.
We worried about drugs. We argued over abortion rights and free speech.
In Washington, all the Republicans seemed to be under investigation, and all the Democrats looked like starry-eyed bunglers.
We’d only recently gotten out of a years-long war that seemed to be a good idea at the start. But everyone was sick of it by the end.
These young people don’t know what hard times are like.
Anyway, it’s impossible to resist offering the new grads, who are about to begin their working lives, some advice from near the end of a working life.
Don’t stop learning.
That sounds like a line that got cut from somebody’s commencement speech, or an audition to write graduation cards for Hallmark. But it’s really about cold, hard cash.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics put together median weekly earnings figures at different levels of educational attainment for people 25 and over. The statistics are not encouraging if you plan to make high school your last trip into a classroom:
—Without a high school diploma: $626 a week.
—With a high school diploma: $809 a week. That’s roughly $40,000 per year, which sounds like a lot if you’re flipping burgers for minimum wage. But remember, half the people with just high school diplomas make less.
—With some college but no degree: $899.
—With a two-year degree: $963.
—With a bachelor’s degree: $1,334.
—With a master’s degree: $1,574.
—With a professional degree: $1,924.
—With a doctoral degree: $1,909.
The difference between a high school diploma and a two-year degree is $154 a week. Unless you marry a saint or an oligarch, you and your spouse will have disagreements over much less money than that, especially as newlyweds.
One more reason to seek post-secondary education: the higher your educational attainment, the lower the unemployment rate in your educational category.
Speaking of statistics:
Every year, the four east St. Mary high schools turn out 15, 20, even 30 or more seniors with perfect 4.0 grade point averages.
On standardized tests, St. Mary students beat the state average every year.
Yet while 92% of U.S. adults have at least a high school diploma, only 82% of St. Mary adults do.
And while 25% of Louisiana adults have bachelor’s degrees, less than 10% of St. Mary adults do.
You don’t have to be in AP math to see that some talented young people are leaving this parish to make their lives.
Please give this soggy piece of land another look. We need you.
Can Austin or Atlanta say that?
If there’s nothing to keep you here, maybe you’re the person who will build something to be here for.
So that’s one case for continuing education. But your next step up the academic ladder should be about more than dollars and cents.
No matter which side you’re on, you have to agree that our politics is crying out for people who understand something about our country’s history and can apply those lessons through the use of critical thinking.
That comes from studying history, of course, but also these days from understanding the basics of science when it comes to issues such as climate change. A bit of empathy doesn’t hurt, either, and that can come from literature — the classics or your own.
Here’s one more Hallmark line to send you on your way. It’s from Plutarch:
A mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be kindled.
Good luck, Class of 2022.
Bill Decker is managing editor of the Morgan City Review.