Posted on 07/04/2012 7:43:33 AM PDT by wintertime
Well...There are always outliers. I know complete slackers and bums who have college degrees. Some even have more than one degree.
Very impressive. Congratulations to you and your homeschoolers!
Thank you. They are hard workers.
Perhaps if they had been released from their kiddie prison ( mis-named “public” school), and worked at a real job creating real and meaningful wealth and health for people to enjoy, they might have turned out differently. Their lives would have had real purpose and direction.
Another money saver would be to let students drop out who don’t want to be in school and will never pass general requirements if they stay until they are 100 years old. The idea of forcing them to stay in the building until they are of a certain age is ridiculous. They are discipline problems that cause distractions for other students and cost the same as those who want to learn. Let them go find a real job if they can. Those who can’t would just wind up on welfare a few years earlier (unless they are already on welfare).
Absolutely!
Of course, as a libertarian I think all compulsory schooling laws should be abolished, but I don't see that happening soon.
Hm?...If this were so, why then are employers demanding INTERNSHIP experience?
Could it be that a college degree is NOT a reliable measure of resolve and ambition? Is this why INTERNSHIPS are now becoming almost mandatory?
The SAT and ACT as measures of intelligence and responsibility? That’s a horrible idea.
For example, I NEVER studied in HS (graduated with a 4.32 gpa and top 10% of my class), never once studied for the SAT (made 910 in 7th grade and 1280 senior year without once cracking a book.) Could I have made higher if I studied? Yes. I could have cracked 1400-1500 but at that point in time I didn’t give a crap. Yet, I still scored higher than the vast majority of students.
And the number 1 problem with this idea? The theory of incentives. You’re giving an incentive to dumb down the tests which they can and will do if our current education system is used as a comparison.
If anything, model our tests after the tests in Asian countries. That’ll open some eyes.
(1) That test is racist because minorities tend to score lower.
(2) Those tests are racist because minorities tend to score lower.
(3) Those tests are racist because minorities tend to score lower.
Any other ideas?
Fundamentaly, all of our godless government owned and run socialist-entitlmen K-12 schools should be shut down for many reasons. These suggestions would help reduce the number of children attending these schools and, for some children, shorten the time spent in them.
These suggestions would also reduce the number of young adults attending the Marxist indoctrination camps ( mis-named “universities”), reduce their debt, reduce taxes, and increase their lifetime earnings.
( Oh my! ..Is chuckling rascist?)
The co. I work for has been doing a lot of internships but I think it is a way for them to get workers for no pay and no benefits as the primary reason.
“Great idea, but the SAT doesn’t measure the student’s ability to get up on time, go to a place of work on a schedule (school/business), tolerate cranky people (teachers/co-workers), turn in homework, get along with others. In short, the SAT, an excellent measure of intelligence and knowledge at a point in time, doesn’t measure other aspects that are often required for work.”
That’s what ENTRY-LEVEL jobs do. Most high schoolers don’t get hired based on SATs, GEDs, or other exams - they get hired if they get their name right on the application and there’s enough left of their face left (after piercings) to recognize them as humanoid (although not always).
If they can do what you say as McDonald’s, then they’ll probably so the same at an accounting job.
Thanks for the ping, Wintertime.
The 150+ year government indoctrination experiment masquerading as “education” is being exposed.
It is more than just a failed education paradigm. In fact, it has been moderately successful at creating an ignorant, Godless, proletariat with little moral compass, seeking only to gratify their petty lusts, as promoted and encouraged by the government indoctrination system.
It amazes me that almost 50% of the electorate still maintains any semblance of understanding of free market economics, any desire for individual liberty, or any knowledge of history.
Two decades ago, a younger relative realized in his senior year in High School that he didn’t want to go to college.
He tried to get into the GED program, and the school didn’t want to lose the daily $’s for him coming to school.
So he stopped going to school, and he got a good asst principal who lined him up to get into the GED program. He finished in about 6 weeks and scored very high on the test.
Later he went to a trade school where he learned how to work for a living in a specific trade.
He parlayed that experience into another industry and is making good money. Two of his cousins took a similiar route and are well paid “blue collar” guys.
Several o their cousins spent years at college getting instant unemployment degrees and are living at home with their parents or older siblings being waiters or something that doesn’t require a degree. They owe anywhere from a 100k to 250K in student loans for their instant unemployment degrees. Some have masters in instant unemployment.
Use the GED and trade schools and bust the teacher unions and their tax sucking grips on America.
Excellent point! SAT and ACT scores do NOT provide an employer with enough information. It appears to me that college isn’t either. Could this be why employers are now demanding that applicants have **internship** experience on their resumes?
Could it be that college degrees and SAT and ACT scores are not entirely reliable in proving an applicant’s resolve, aptitude for the job, social skills, and reliability?
Question: So?...Why can’t internships be made available to those with high SAT scores who have not attended college? Does the employer need to pay the person for his internship? I know young people who are actually paying out of their own pocket for internship opportunities.
SAT and ACT scores are highly correlated to a person’s raw intelligence, and they **do** prove a persons level of literacy and numeracy. Couple this with an **internship** and perhaps we have a way for many young people to skip college completely.
This is the beauty of Free Republic. Ideas can be refined. You do have a good point.
I like your suggestions
___________________________________________________________________
Here’s my modest proposal for education reform.
We have been discussing ways to fast track kids through high school to avoid the liberal agenda and other idiocies:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1315730/posts?page=84#84
Proposal for the Free Republic High School Diploma.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1316882/posts
To All:
BobL makes a good point, too.
A good work record and a good recommendation from an employer, such as Mc Donalds, should be enough ( along with SAT and ACT scores) to show an employer if a person has a good chance of succeeding on the job.
And...As trailhkr1 points out, employers can get free labor, and an excellent opportunity to screen the applicant, through internships.
“Question: So?...Why can’t internships be made available to those with high SAT scores who have not attended college?
This is the beauty of Free Republic. Ideas can be refined. You do have a good point.”
Yea, I caught that too. People think that you’re excluding the working parts of the existing system (i.e., internships). You can certainly have that, in addition to scores, being used when considering someone for a ‘permanent’ position.
A college degree doesn't do that nowadays, either.
When I went to university 30 years ago, I had to sacrifice, struggle, and work myself to exhaustion in order to get an undergraduate degree, and then redoubled my efforts for grad school. But speaking as the mother of a young woman whom just finished working her way through school, I can tell you that a college degree signals NONE of those things any longer.
Don't get me wrong, my daughter is very bright and she works fanatically hard at any job she undertakes. Her bosses and professors always love her. But she was surrounded by classmates who drank, screwed, and partied their way through school. It was four years of sex and vomit. But they got degrees, too. To those kids, a degree meant postponing adulthood for four years.
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