普林斯顿大学校长2018毕业演讲：读书无用论是最大的谎言(中英文)

演讲稿英文版：

In a few minutes, all of you will march through FitzRandolph Gate as newly minted graduates of this University. Before you do, it is my privilege to say a few words about the path that lies ahead. It is indeed a privilege, and also a joy, to address you, for all of you who graduate today have accomplished something genuinely important and worth celebrating.

You have completed a demanding course of study. It will transform your life in many ways. It will expand the range of vocations you can pursue, increase your knowledge of the world, deepen your capacity to appreciate societies and cultures, and provide a foundation for lifelong learning.

So we celebrate here on the lawn in front of Nassau Hall, as do other college communities in courtyards, auditoria, arenas, and stadia around the country. Graduates toss caps in the air and professors applaud. Families cheer and holler enthusiastically. Yet, even as we do so, we see a strange trend from columnists, bloggers, think tanks, and politicians. In essays, books, and speeches, some of them suggest that too many students are earning college degrees.

Too many college graduates: that is a very odd claim, because the economic evidence for the value of a college degree is overwhelming. For example, in 2014, economists Jaison Abel and Richard Deitz of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York estimated the average annual return on investment from a college degree, net of tuition paid and lost earnings, at between 9 percent and 16 percent per year for a lifetime (1). For the last two decades, the return on investment has hovered at the high end of that range, around 15 percent per year.

By comparison, the historical average return on investments in the American stock market is around 7 percent per year. That is why my friend Morton Shapiro, the president of Northwestern University and a leading educational economist, says that for most people, the decision to invest in a college degree will be “the single best financial decision they make in a lifetime,”even if judged purely in terms of financial return on investment.

A degree conveys many other benefits as well. For example, college graduates report higher levels of happiness and job satisfaction, even after controlling for income. College graduates are healthier than non-graduates. They are more likely to exercise, more likely to vote,

and have higher levels of civic engagement. To these pragmatic considerations we should add the joys that come with an increased capacity to appreciate culture, the arts, the world’s diversity, and the inherent beauty of extraordinary ideas.

The numbers I have quoted are not specific to Princeton. On the contrary, they are averages over all four-year degrees, in all fields, from all colleges in the United States. Think about that for a moment: on average, all degrees in all fields from all colleges generate an annual return between 9 percent and 16 percent, and this return is supplemented by additional benefits to health, happiness, and quality of life. How could anyone think we need fewer college graduates?

Some people answer that you can learn a trade without getting a college degree. Welders, they observe, can make more money than many college graduates. That’s true. There are, of course, reasons why you might want to get a college degree even if you plan to become a welder. You might worry, for example, about what happens if technology renders your trade obsolete, or arthritis leaves you unable to practice it, or you want to move into management or explore other interests. A college degree equips you to respond to the changes —to yourself, and to the world —that inevitably occur over a lifetime.