| I think that you're confusing the article's mention of education or schooling with college. The opinion I take from the article is that while the emphasis should remain on continued schooling after high school, it's important that students be made aware of schooling options outside of a traditional four year degree. >This is ridiculous. Does anyone here really expect to attend a four-year college, or even two years at a local college, to be a plumber? Or electrician? Or computer tech? This is blatantly conflating trades with education. Exactly the author's point: We need to stop pushing all kids into college when some of them really should be pursuing tradeschools or associates degrees focused narrowly on these middle-wage skilled jobs. >> It is in this respect that the prevailing “college for all” philosophy is most misguided...
>ARGH. This article really is saying that kids don't need to learn math, because they can work in a factory instead. They don't need to learn English, because they can swing a hammer instead. They don't need to learn history, because they can wrench on a car. I think she's saying that kids don't need a BA in Applied Maths to work in a factory, or a BA in English Literature to be a machinist, or a BA in American History to wrench on a car. We're failing children by using college attendance rates as a metric and then blindly pursuing that metric without consideration for the impact on those kids or the economy they'll find themselves in when that first student loan payment comes due. High school really should be putting a lot of focus on "What do you want to do when you grow up? This is what that requires." rather than "Get a degree in something, anything, and it will all work out for the best." |