Posted on 04/04/2006 1:47:36 PM PDT by goldwaterfan34
"What Berg most remembers about the response to the book was a letter in The New York Times from a college professor in St. Louis who complained that Berg was casting doubt on the social value of education just as educators’ incomes were finally climbing. “He said about me, ‘Why is he going public with this?’” Berg laughs. “With a perfectly straight face, he was not denying anything in the book. He just had the attitude of, ‘We’re being found out!’”
I think our quest for a honest sociologist has hit pay dirt.
IMHO, we need more technical training--we need carpenters, plumbers, electricians, etc. They don't need a college degree, but they darn sure need hands on training in their chosen work.
I would like to see our high schools develop better trade school training for all those kids who aren't college material, but would make good workers. There is lots of money to be made in these fields.
I would agree with this statement......25 years ago.
The enormous labor pool of Mexicans has changed all of that.
Excellent article. As a current college student, I can tell you he hits many nails on the head. Including some of my reasons for being here.
You are correct. Trade schools, and I would advocate for an apprenticeship program also.
I think it's a shame we send kids out of high school with no skills to get a job, and then we send them on to college and many of them still end up with no skills to get a job.
This email from a student who graduated from high school last year (modified to protect him) exemplifies how I think it should work in the real world:
Ms. [Gummy],
I wanted to write to let you know I got a part-time job doing software development. The company is called [name withheld] (http://www.***.***.***/). They have me working in a small team implementing a project management system for a website. When I went for the interview they were most impressed that I had database experience. They said that most people they hire have never taken a database course and especially not had any database certification. That combined with my experience with PHP was most definitely what got me the job. Of the three other people that I'm working with I'm the only one with any database experience.
I still remember the database design project that we had to do. [Student1], [Student2], and I would come in everyday and have heated debates about the best way to do the design. Those were some good times.
This is my second week on the job. I'm enjoying it a lot. The environment is pretty laid back and informal. I'm sure I will gain a lot of experience. This was the sort of job I had been wanting to give a try. I'm committed to doing this job for the rest of this semester and then through the summer and I will probably be doing it all next year as
well as long as they still have work that needs to be done.
So thank you for teaching me database design!
I hope everything is going well at [school].
[Signed by my former student]
Please see #7
Do you need to read past this sentence? It's the same old fixed pie argument that has driven Dem politics for ages.
I don't believe it.
Not that you don't have to choose carefully - Buggy Whip design is not as good a choice as nanotechnology but well qualified people with needed technical skills can find jobs. Graduate more experts in nanotechnology and that industry will grow faster and absorb the new graduates. People who study East Hungarian Literature with a minor in Icelandic History will have more of a problem.
BTW...this student is now a university student, accepted early decision at a very prestigious school in computer engineering last year. He's definitely not a slacker. He had his A+, CCNA, and Oracle 9i certification before graduating from high school (I had him for 3 years in these subjects). I also taught him Java. He's had other programming classes and is self-taught in even other technology areas.
Perhaps if the public schools K-12 would do their jobs properly an individual wouldn't need a four-year college degree to prove that he can read and write--which, incidentally, many still can't do.
Marking to read later.
I know how he feels, I used to have(maybe still do)A+, CCNA, almost all of the microsoft networking certs, Novell CNI(CNA, CNE, but they are lower)and about 5 other certs. Without the college they are don't want to hire you, but when they do hire you, they pay you the same as person with a degree and the same certs!
Amen! And I R a Publik Skool Teacher! ;-)
Well, we have that in Flori-DUH? where something like 50% of folks looking for a teaching degree fail the test to become one! Wadda we do? Lower the 'passing' score so they can work in our schools!
At least they can't change the rules of mother nature--The CREAM will 'rise to the top'....Sadly most students WILL suffer the their/these incompetent teachers. Among 'real' doctorates...the doctor of education, at least among my crowd, is more or less a joke....That should offend someone here I guess....
I'm not discounting a good college education. I'm discounting a bad one.
However, there are still plenty of skill-only jobs available without a college degree, and actually that is the highest growing workforce predicted for the next decade or two. I'd have to look up the exact statistics, but our service and skill areas are where you are going to see the most need. Electricians, for example, are hard to find, and the starting pay for them with NO college degree is $20/hour. With experience and a journeyman's card, they can make double that, easily. It still takes a decent work ethic, reading, and math to do that. One can't be illiterate and do it. Plumbers and carpenters are high on the list, also.
Service personnel in home care, health care, and other areas are high. These may require a one or two-year certification program and/or an associates degree. But they don't require a 4-year college education. RN's don't have to have a 4-year college degree to make much more than I do as a teacher, and they are in great demand.
We lost many apprenticeship programs decades ago. Today, immigrants take many entry level jobs and acquire the on-the-job skills which will boost their incomes over time, especially in the construction trades.
We've been blowing stardust at our young people, and it's going to cost this country. It already is.
Pass this article along to your school district's board members and administrators.
My son is in the Navy. He did a year of college first. In the Navy he's a welder. He wants to go back to college when he gets out, but I'm really happy that he is learning welding! Pretty much opens up his options! It doesn't matter to me if he has a degree or not. I just want him to be able to provide for his family someday in an honest living. Of course, I'll be proud no matter what he decides to do :-)
I agree though, we need to encourage more young people to go into the trades.
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