[mc32]

I agree with all you say, I just want to add that parenting matters very much. Parents who care and are involved and demand. Yes, many parents go overboard and put their kids in a pressure cooker, but there is a middle ground between that and parents who say, 'that's what school is for' (to teach them). In other words the kids need to be accultured into wanting if not loving academics and learning.

For many of the kids I grew up with, school was an irritant --something they had to go to but didn't want to. Most of their parents were middle class but not the educated yuppie parents.

But to this program. While it may not guarantee better jobs for all graduates, I still think it's good idea to have young adults exposed to ideas and mentors. I'd rather have educated unemployed people than uneducated unemployed people if it ended in a wash... Still, I think this is a good way to address one thing which may keep some kids from going the next step in their way to higher learning and hopefully more fulfilling jobs.