Higher Education

In Sweat, a play by Lynn Nottage, many of the characters we’ve seen so far are factory/industry workers, and the theme of education also appears frequently. However, when the topic of education is brought up there always seems to be a stigma around it. For instance, in scene 3 when Chris nervously mentions that he’s going to attend the teaching program at Albright Jason seems outraged and expresses his views that school is useless. Later in scene 4, when Cynthia tells Brucie that Chris got into Albright, Brucie just pushes it off and says Chris is a “damn fool”. Chris’s desire to seek higher education fits well into the broader historical context of the US during the 2000s as there were record rising college enrollment rates. But what caused these rises in enrollment? What were some of the motivations that led millions of Americans such as Chris to decide that now is the time to enroll in college? Well, there’s an array of factors but one of the most notable shifts during this era includes the rise of automation. With the world continuing to get more advanced, many industrial jobs began to be threatened by automation, this fear of potentially losing their job led many to seek higher education in order to obtain less computerizable jobs. Additionally, government programs such as financial aid and student loans became more accessible in this era helping to promote college enrollment. Further, there were also large cultural shifts that encouraged students to attend college. This shift was largely driven by the sentiment that America was shifting to a knowledge based economy with many high-paying jobs requiring college degrees. This trend has sustained to the present day with more than 65% percent of high school students planning to go to some sort of higher education program after leaving high school.