Send More Students to College (Our schools must prepare students for higher education)

National Review ^ | 10/22/2009 | Marcus A. Winters

[FreedomProtector]

marking...

[E. Pluribus Unum]

When half the kids graduating from inner-city schools are functional illiterates, talking about them going to college seems sort of counter-productive.

[dblshot]

A college degree won’t keep you from getting screwed, but it will help you understand why you got screwed.

[tgusa]

A good place to start might be making a high school diploma worth something again. It’s not even a badge for a reasonably good attendance record now.

[Soothesayer9]

When the govt purports to make everyone special, then no one will be special.

[pepsionice]

I would be curious as to what highly technical jobs we intend to create...to give jobs to this college graduates? Are we going to drop $45k jobs down to $35k to hand over to these new college graduates?

[Mrs.Z]

After teaching in public school for years, I am now in a private college-prep school.

The only students in public schools who will have ANY chance of getting a college degree are the pre-AP/honors kids. (30-50% depending on the school)

At my school ALL the kids are pre-AP/honors and 98% complete a college degree within 6 years.

That’s my take after 30+ years of teaching.

[RebelTXRose]

but us RICH WHITE FOLK must pay more for our kids to go to college cause the functional illiterates MUST go to college. (I’m really getting angry with what I see on the horizon for my son who will graduate high school next summer.)

[ElayneJ]

“A good place to start might be making a high school diploma worth something again.”

Bingo!
Lots of kids are entering college who shouldn’t be there yet - because they have to take remedial classes to get up to speed. These are high school grads who should be qualified to enter college as a performing freshman. So - we’re all paying for their education twice - once at the high school level, then again at the college remedial level. Our state reps don’t seem too concerned about it, either, so change isn’t coming any time soon. The whole education system needs to be overhauled, IMO.

[G Larry]

Credit school counselors and inattentive parents.

“You must have a great GPA, so don’t take any high school courses that might be challenging...”

So Dick and Jane graduate college with degree’s in psychology, sports medicine, women’s studies, art, poli-sci,...that’s nice...but good luck finding a job!
We graduate about 10 times more of these “skills” than there are available jobs.

[tgusa]

Any reasonably ambitious youngster with a meaningful high school diploma can find a job in the trades making good $ without taking on the debt of a college education. Jobs in the shipyard here go begging, even with a robust apprentice program.

[SeekAndFind]

Any reasonably ambitious youngster with a meaningful high school diploma

There we go -- the keyword is "meaningful". The problem is too many of our High School diplomas are meaningless.

[politicket]

College is overrated in many, many instances.

There are an enormous number of kids that would be much better served through an apprenticeship/mentorship opportunity.

Most kids use college as a means of exercising irresponsibility at tremendous cost - all the while never using the degree that they obtained.

I can honestly say that college simply helped to get me my first job - that's it. It was a worthless experience otherwise.

A good mentor would have accomplished the same goal at much less cost to me.

[tgusa]

That’s my point - we’re in violent agreement.

[SeekAndFind]

A good mentor would have accomplished the same goal at much less cost to me.

Let's say you did not go to college and had no diploma but had a good mentor ( I'm trying to understand what you mean by this ). How would you have gotten your first job ? How would the hiring manager of your first job know how good your mentor is ?

[SMARTY]

“So Dick and Jane graduate college with degree’s in psychology, sports medicine, women’s studies, art, poli-sci,...that’s nice...but good luck finding a job!
We graduate about 10 times more of these “skills” than there are available jobs.”

Yup...that's why we need to make sure that ‘civil rights’ - ‘women's issues’ - ‘minority issues’ remain a booming'INDUSTRY’ in America.

I work at a university. You ought to see the ‘students’ walking around here who are studying these things. But, don't ask them about cold hard facts, how to read their own schedules or even how to find their own classrooms. They're just imbibing the ‘INDUSTRY’ hype like little sponges.

[353FMG]

In today’s economic downturn it takes a HS graduate to assist a graduate engineer in stacking cans at a grocery store.

[politicket]

How would you have gotten your first job ? How would the hiring manager of your first job know how good your mentor is ?

I have owned my own company for many years. I can tell how good somebody is within ten minutes in an interview.

I don't really care who taught them - as long as they have good character, are a hard worker, possess the necessary skills, and have a deep desire to make my company a profit.

[politicket]

( I'm trying to understand what you mean by this )

A mentor is someone who is a professional in their field and brings apprentice(s) alongside to teach under their watchful eye.

I'm currently mentoring three young men myself.