Correct, college is not for everyone. College is what you make of it. You want to know where this country is headed. Look at its Universities. Where the students completely lack basic skills. They no longer know how to think critically, how to form arguments, then support those arguments with facts, They want to know what key points the Professor expects in an essay, they expect exams to either be multiple choice or take home if the questions are essay based. I am relativily young at 34. However, in the past decade since I’ve graduated undergrad, the expectations have become that of an 8th grader. I can only imagin how older generations feel, seeing the level of education and discourse plummet in this country. The most pathetic part of this decline, is how younger generations have easier access to information and better technologies. It is a sad pathetic state. This is why I hope to steer my own childern towards skilled trades.
I don't think that there is anything that any college can do to correct the deficiencies in individuals. These students aren't 14 years old when they attend university. Students who want to learn do learn. Students who don't want to learn don't learn. It really is that simple.
Colleges cannot just shovel experience and growth into a young man or woman. The young man or woman must be seeking education and growth and then they can use college as one vehicle for that process.
Your last sentence is the reflection of a wise man.
Consider a moment that the concept of college/university is a relatively modernist fad. Think how deprived Pericles, Aristotle, Euclid, Sophocles, Julius Caesar, Cicero, Virgil, Aurelius; among hundreds of Ancients were w/o degrees, the poor things. Despite this, they managed to create Western Civilization.
The Scholastics of the High Middle Ages were self taught natural philosophers and logicians; our first scientists.
Shakespeare, Michelangelo, Mozart, among other geniuses,
managed just fine w/o degrees.
We are in thrall to horse manure and malarkey, as if a credential equates to achievement. It never did.
Cold reality is real simple. We stand of the massive shoulders of the giants of the past which allows us to see as far as we do.