Episode 55: Shooting Down Helicopter Parents

Today is another conversation that fits into our recurring series titled “A User’s Guide to Higher Education.” It’s true that this has nothing to do with history, or higher education. But it’s a topic in which we’re more than a little (self) interested, and in which myth always seems to outnumber fact.  So, until another podcast comes along and tells you how US News and World Report’s polls tell you nothing of use, we’ll keep on having these conversations on higher ed.

This time we’re joined by our friend and Augustana colleague Mike Edmondson, Vice-President and Director of Careers–Opportunities–Research–Exploration…CORE, as we call it here. It’s what other less advanced institutions of higher learning call a Career Office, which at this college is like saying in the 1970’s that Arnold Schwarzenegger is a guy who lifts weights. (It’s true, see, but is a very limited truth.)

Mike has a PhD in History (so he’s obviously a classy guy) from Temple University. He’s been on Historically Thinking before, in Episode 8 talking about his book Marketing Your Value: 9 Steps to Navigate Your Career. Now he returns to discuss a new and related title that’s just been published, Major in Happiness: Debunking the College Major Fallacies. There are a lot of those fallacies, but we don’t talk about many of them. Instead, we discuss the expectations of parents, and, quite frankly, take them to the woodshed. In a gentle, helpful, yet challenging way. We hope.

Thanks for listening! Apologies for the long delay; we’ll be back next week. Promise.

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