Critical Thinking Lesson Guide | The Economist: Why Are Today’s Graduates So Desperate?

LESSON PLAN

Note: There is an article summary with real-life commenters below this lesson plan.

Title: Are Today’s Graduates Really Desperate? – Critical Thinking through Global Job Market Trends
Grade: 11–12
Level: Intermediate to Advanced EAL
Length: 80–90 minutes
Skills Focus: Reading comprehension, vocabulary building, argumentative writing, discussion, critical evaluation
Theme: Education, Careers, Global Trends, Media Literacy

🎯 LEARNING OBJECTIVES

By the end of the lesson, students will be able to:

1. Understand the key arguments in a global news article about education and employment trends.
2. Analyze and evaluate different reader reactions to the article.
3. Develop critical opinions on whether university degrees still guarantee success.
4. Use target vocabulary and sentence structures to discuss and defend opinions in both spoken and written English.
   

🧩 MATERIALS

• Simplified/annotated article summary (from your English translation above)
• Selected real user comments (printout or Google Docs)
• Worksheet (vocab + critical thinking prompts)
• Slides or whiteboard
  
  
• Optional: YouTube video snippet or infographic showing youth employment trends (OECD, WSJ, etc.)
  

🕐 LESSON FLOW

1. Warm-Up Discussion (10 mins)

Prompt: Do you think going to university guarantees a good job? Why or why not?

• Small groups → share opinions
• Write 3 arguments for and against
• Teacher elicits ideas and writes pros/cons on the board
  
  

2. Vocabulary Preview (10 mins)

Key terms from the article summary:

• overqualified,
• return on investment (ROI),
• automation,
• transferable skills,
• global competition,
• outsourcing,
• elite institutions,
• AI-enhanced work,
• job market saturation.

Activity: Match words to definitions or context-fill blanks in pairs

3. Reading + Comprehension (20 mins)

Students read a simplified version of the article summary in 3 chunks:

• Part 1: Is a degree still valuable?
• Part 2: Job market changes (AI, globalization)
• Part 3: What can young people do?

Tasks (group or individual):

• Highlight main idea of each part
• Identify one statistic that surprised them and explain why
• Summarize the author’s overall opinion in 1–2 sentences
  
  

4. Comment Analysis & Media Literacy (20 mins)

Distribute 6–8 real user comments from the thread above.
Include different tones: supportive, cynical, sarcastic, critical of AI, etc.

Tasks:

• Match comments to tone labels (e.g. "sarcastic", "analytical", "personal story")
• Choose one comment they agree or disagree with → explain why
• Discuss: Do online comments help or hurt critical thinking?
  
  

5. Critical Thinking Writing Task (15 mins)

Prompt: “College is no longer worth the money unless you go to a top school.”
Do you agree or disagree?

• Students write 1-paragraph responses using sentence starters:
• In my opinion… / One reason is that… / However… / Another perspective is…
  

6. Group Discussion / Debate (15 mins)

Team A: University is still the best path to success
Team B: University is no longer worth it unless elite

• Use facts from article + opinions from comments
• Rotate speakers for maximum participation
• Teacher prompts with questions if needed

📝 OPTIONAL EXTENSION / HOMEWORK

• Interview 1 adult (parent, teacher, older sibling) about their experience with university and work.
• Write a short report: Do their experiences support or challenge the article’s view?

🔍 ASSESSMENT CRITERIA

Skill

Success Criteria

Reading

Student identifies main ideas and key facts from the article

Vocabulary

Uses 5+ key terms accurately in writing or discussion

Writing

Paragraph shows opinion, at least 1 supporting argument, proper structure

Speaking

Participates in discussion using relevant vocabulary and respectful disagreement

In its June 2025 cover story, The Economist boldly asked: "Why today’s graduates are 'screwed'?"

The article, witty in tone yet rigorous in data, dismantles the myth that “higher education equals a higher starting point.” Once considered a golden ticket to social mobility, a university degree is rapidly losing its value. This trend isn’t just playing out in the U.S., but across the Western world — including major economies like Japan and Canada.

1. Are Degrees Still Worth It? Not as Much as You Might Think

The glow of a “high-level degree” is fading fast — no longer a niche concern, but a global structural shift. We're entering an era where a university diploma functions less like a passport and more like an expensive waiting pass.

According to The Economist:

• Shrinking income gap: The median income gap between U.S. bachelor’s and high school diploma holders has fallen from 69% in 2015 to 50% in 2024.
  (Note: While there's still a 50% premium, the drop signals diminishing marginal returns from higher education.)
  
• Falling job satisfaction: The “graduate satisfaction premium” has declined from a long-standing +7% to just +3%.
  
• Surprisingly high unemployment: Unemployment among 22–27-year-olds with bachelor’s degrees is above the national average, largely driven by first-time job seekers.
  
• Lower employment rates: Stanford GSB reported an 11 percentage point drop in job placement within three months of graduation for its 2024 cohort, compared to 2021.

Taken together, these data points suggest: a college degree no longer guarantees higher income or job security.

2. Glamorous Industries Are Cooling Down

Tech: From Darling to Layoff Epicenter

• Since 2022, Meta, Google, and Amazon have laid off more than 100,000 employees combined.
  
• In Q1 2024, U.S. tech job postings dropped by 38% year-on-year.
  
• Stanford GSB saw a 20%+ drop in tech job offer acceptance compared to 2021.

Public Sector: Declining Prestige and Appeal

• An OECD report notes the Western public sector faces budget tightening, aging populations, and lagging digital transitions.
  
• Civil service exam applications in the UK are falling, reflecting a changing perception of “job stability.”

Engineering: Outsourced by Globalization

• According to Nature, China’s share of first authorship rose from 19% in 2012 to 37% in 2024.
  
• Asia is now the epicenter for advanced manufacturing and green tech, placing Western engineers in fiercer global competition.
  

Law: AI Enters the Courtroom

• Firms like IBM and PwC use AI to review contracts, eliminating entry-level roles.
  
• McKinsey predicts 23% of legal jobs will be automated by 2030.
  

Media: Entry Points All but Gone

• In 2024, 41% of U.S. local newspapers downsized their workforce.
  
• Fewer than 25% of journalism grads land full-time media jobs within six months.
  

The New York Times reporter who authored the piece ended it with a biting observation:

3. Structural Shifts, Not Individual Failures

The crisis facing graduates isn’t due to personal inadequacy — it’s the result of broad systemic changes:

1. Tech Outpaces Education:
   Generative AI and automation are transforming industries faster than education systems can keep up. Outdated curricula are leaving students mismatched upon graduation.
   
2. Global Labor Market Reshaped:
   Remote work and international collaboration have eliminated geographical barriers. Many mid-level jobs are now outsourced, eroding middle-class job stability.
   
3. Graduates Thrust into Uncertainty:
   The internship → temp contract → retraining cycle has become the new normal. “Graduate and settle down” is a relic of the past.
   

4. How to Survive? Learn to Dance in the Wind

Rather than wait passively, we must adapt proactively (drawing from OECD, BLS, and Stanford GSB recommendations):

• Cultivate Transferable Skills
  These are foundational abilities — not tied to any one tool or discipline — that help you survive, adapt, and grow in any environment. International education bodies call these “transferable skills” or lifelong competencies.
  
• Collaborate with AI, Don’t Compete Against It
  Learn to apply and integrate AI tools, becoming an “enhancer” rather than being replaced.
  
• Develop a Hybrid Identity
  Build a primary career path while exploring secondary capabilities. This diversification reduces the risk of single-point failure.
  

5. Elite Universities Still Offer High Returns

The landscape is increasingly polarized. Consider:

• Returns vary by school and major:
  According to Brookings and the U.S. Department of Education:
  
• Graduates from Ivy League schools like Harvard or Stanford earn $120,000+ median income after 10 years.
• Graduates from state universities or low-ranked private colleges earn just $40,000–$60,000.
• Some nonprofit or community college grads earn less than high school grads, despite $20,000–$40,000 in student debt.

• Your college brand shapes your career ceiling:
  Harvard Business Review (2023):
  Graduates from elite schools are 3–5× more likely to land high-paying offers because of stronger networks, brand signaling, and career resources.
  
• The U.S. Department of Education’s ROI Rankings:
  Georgetown University’s College ROI Rankings show:
  
• The top 50 schools are almost exclusively elite or STEM-focused.
  
• Schools ranked 200+ often show low or even negative ROI, with high debt and poor salary outcomes.
  

Conclusion

As The Economist put it:

May we all become our own algorithm engineers, rebuilding certainty in an uncertain world.

Critics of this recap article wrote:

🔹 Critical of AI-generated tone or formatting:

• AustinZ (Zhejiang): “浓浓AI味的结构甚至排版”
  “Strong AI flavor in both structure and formatting.”
  
  
• 诗与空间 (Shanxi): “AI风格，看来老牌顶流媒体也划水了。”
  “Feels AI-generated… looks like even top legacy media are cutting corners now.”
  
  
• 自在飞 (Hunan): “AI风格是这博主用了导致的，而非原本的期刊媒体。”
  “It’s the blogger who used AI — not the original journalistic outlet.”
  
  

🔹 Discussion of elite vs non-elite universities:

• Albert (Japan): “不是top学校的问题，是普通大学生的问题。”
  “The issue isn’t with elite schools — it’s with the average graduate.”
  
  
• 🌕🍑桃子姐姐💛🌟JJ20版 (Jiangsu): “Top University也有问题，比如东京大学。”
  “Even top universities like the University of Tokyo have issues, as some professors have pointed out.”
  

🔹 Pushback on translation and language usage:

• Valar (Shanghai): “Screwed怎么着也不该翻成绝望…”
  “‘Screwed’ shouldn’t be translated as ‘desperate’…”
  
  
• 🌕🍑桃子姐姐 again: “提醒一下小编，大学专业课，我们不用subject 我们用major。”
  “Just a reminder — in university contexts, we say ‘major’, not ‘subject’.”
  (Countered by Kallen, who pointed out the UK uses “subject”.)
  

🔹 Reflecting on job market and society:

• 何穗穗 (Guangdong): “是整个世界的难题，倒底问题出在哪里。”
  “This is a global problem — where exactly did it all go wrong?”
  
  
• As a Running Stone (Shanghai):
  “任总不是说AI可能是人类最后一次科技革命吗？…搞定了核聚变可能才会打破内卷。”
  “Didn’t Ren Zhengfei say AI could be humanity’s last tech revolution? If we crack nuclear fusion, maybe that could end all this rat race.”
  

🔹 Cynical or humorous takes:

• Vincent (Heilongjiang):
  “高情商：绝望。低情商：被撅了腚。”
  “High EQ: They’re desperate. Low EQ: They got their butts kicked.”
  
  Paul阿拉神庙 (Guangdong): “那年不绝望。”
  “Was there ever a year we weren’t desperate?”