Subscribe
We know that educational attainment matters a great deal for the economic success of our cities. In fact, by some measures, it is the single most important factor.
City Observatory found that 60% of the variation in per capita income across large U.S. metro areas could be explained simply by the percentage of the population with a 4-year college degree.
So education matters a lot.
Many of you have probably seen this entertaining TED talk by Sir Ken Robinson called: Do schools kill creativity? It has almost 47 million views at this point.
Well, he was recently interviewed by Ingrid Peritz of the Globe and Mail and I have to share the following quote, because I think it’s terrific (particularly the part in bold):
“We need to recognize that children have a huge range of natural abilities and they all have them differently. Our education systems are designed to focus on a small band of those. If you have a narrow conception of ability, you end up with a very big conception of disability or inability.”
More people with a college degree seems to be a pretty good thing. But the solution doesn’t start there. Logically, it starts much earlier – with children.
All of this matters not just because people with a degree should, on average, make more money and have a higher quality of life.
But because it’s heartbreaking to think that some young child with incredible talents might be being mislabeled as inept simply because we have a system that is, well, inept.
I recommend you read the interview with Ken.
Photo by Christian Fregnan on Unsplash
The following chart is from City Observatory. It compares per capita income against the college attainment rate for the largest US metropolitan areas. If you hover over a circle it’ll tell you the metro area and what the precise numbers are. If you can’t see the chart below, click here.
https://public.tableausoftware.com/javascripts/api/viz_v1.js
What they found from this data set is that educational attainment – the percentage of the population with a 4-year college degree – is the single most important factor when it comes to urban economic success. In fact, according to City Observatory, it accounts for 60% of the variation in per capita income across the metro areas listed above. That’s huge.
So even though people like Peter Thiel might be encouraging kids to drop out of College and start a company, having a well-educated population is a really important thing for cities. Actually, it’s the most important thing.
We know that educational attainment matters a great deal for the economic success of our cities. In fact, by some measures, it is the single most important factor.
City Observatory found that 60% of the variation in per capita income across large U.S. metro areas could be explained simply by the percentage of the population with a 4-year college degree.
So education matters a lot.
Many of you have probably seen this entertaining TED talk by Sir Ken Robinson called: Do schools kill creativity? It has almost 47 million views at this point.
Well, he was recently interviewed by Ingrid Peritz of the Globe and Mail and I have to share the following quote, because I think it’s terrific (particularly the part in bold):
“We need to recognize that children have a huge range of natural abilities and they all have them differently. Our education systems are designed to focus on a small band of those. If you have a narrow conception of ability, you end up with a very big conception of disability or inability.”
More people with a college degree seems to be a pretty good thing. But the solution doesn’t start there. Logically, it starts much earlier – with children.
All of this matters not just because people with a degree should, on average, make more money and have a higher quality of life.
But because it’s heartbreaking to think that some young child with incredible talents might be being mislabeled as inept simply because we have a system that is, well, inept.
I recommend you read the interview with Ken.
Photo by Christian Fregnan on Unsplash
The following chart is from City Observatory. It compares per capita income against the college attainment rate for the largest US metropolitan areas. If you hover over a circle it’ll tell you the metro area and what the precise numbers are. If you can’t see the chart below, click here.
https://public.tableausoftware.com/javascripts/api/viz_v1.js
What they found from this data set is that educational attainment – the percentage of the population with a 4-year college degree – is the single most important factor when it comes to urban economic success. In fact, according to City Observatory, it accounts for 60% of the variation in per capita income across the metro areas listed above. That’s huge.
So even though people like Peter Thiel might be encouraging kids to drop out of College and start a company, having a well-educated population is a really important thing for cities. Actually, it’s the most important thing.
Share Dialog
Share Dialog
Share Dialog
Share Dialog