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Posted on 01/08/2012 9:59:45 AM PST by SeekAndFind
Call it low-brow or populist if you wish, but Rick Santorum took aim at Barack Obama this weekend in the arena of education and reminded the president of one aspect of social development which often gets lost in the shuffle. While an admirable goal and extremely important under the right circumstances, not every high school student will wind up going to college. And for those who don’t, not all of them are “losers” in any way shape or form. Roll 212.
Former Sen. Rick Santorum expanded his populist message into education Saturday, accusing President Barack Obama and others of “snobbery” for pushing all kids to go to college.
“We are leaving so many children behind,” Mr. Santorum said at a forum sponsored by the Atlantic, the National Journal and Saint Anselm College. “They’re not ready to go to [college.] They don’t want to go to college. They don’t need to go to college. I was so outraged that the President of the United States [said] every student should go to college.”
“Who are you to say that every child in America goes” to college, he continued. “I have seven kids. Maybe they’ll all go to college. But if one of my kids wants to go and be an auto mechanic, good for him! That’s a good-paying job.”
This is a theme we’ve covered here before, such as our story about good jobs going unfilled, and I always try to be careful about how we handle it. A college education is, in and of itself, obviously not a bad thing. On average, workers with a college degree earn more money and have a lower rate of unemployment than those with only a high school diploma. But those figures don’t tell the entire story by a long shot.
Rick Santorum is correct here. While many people with less education go on to face problematic situations, that doesn’t cover nearly all of them. Some go from high school directly into the military and find rewarding careers there, or learn valuable trade skills which they take to good paying jobs in civilian life afterward. Others go to trade schools or apprenticeship programs, with the opportunity to earn very significant incomes in fields like heating and air conditioning, construction trades, plumbing and more.
This isn’t a one size fits all world. Insinuating that every student must go to college or be seen as some sort of lesser individual is snobbish, elitist, and any other similar term you’d care to apply. President Obama should take time out to read Matthew B. Crawford’s book, Shop Class as Soulcraft. Our schools need to prepare students for life, in addition to gearing them up for college. Some of them may profit more from shop class than a liberal arts progression. I’m sure Santorum will catch some flack for these comments on the campaign trail, but I found his remarks refreshing.
Now days, a ditch digger is a back hoe operator and makes a good living.
Firefox has real time spelling correction. Give it a try prof.
Nothing better than a “their not smart” post. There are probably a few 100 million of them on the internet.
Actually auto mechanics, plumbers and carpenters are among those who, should they desire it, probably can afford a beach house and vacations in Switzerland.
The ‘poor’ today have a much higher standard of living than the poor of a few decades ago, and so the definition is a moving, relative target. Thus, have those who by relative definition are poor as long as some have more—which means forever.
“Actually ? in a neighborhood, a few parents can band together and gather resources to home school their children instead of sending them to public schools..”
In our state - this situation gets labelled as a “private school” and is subject to state regulations that pertain to that.
I was glad to see my niece walk away from Western Michigan after two years. She’s turning on liberalism now.
She says college was a scam and hard work and good grades weren’t rewarded. Instead they got whiny professors riddled with guilt that someone else must suffer for. Social engineering and LUGs (Lesbians Until Graduation) who have found that being a socially preferred oppressed class is an easy route to good grades.
RE: The country would probably be better off if half of the kids in high school weren’t there.
Where would you have them be instead?
Low wealth or income is a sympton of poverty not the cause of it.
Even with a minimum $20,000 per year many of our countrymen will remain impoverished. Money is just one measure of poverty because there is also moral, physical, and spiritual poverty.
I would think of it more as a bribe. I will give you $20,000 per year if you leave me free to work, earn, spend, and invest as I see fit and not tax me so much that it becomes a disincentive for me to work.
Under my model if you take the $20g you give up your right to vote. “No representation without taxation”.
Mr. College Professor, I think that this should be "their" time? I have no college degree, but am old enough to have worked as a secretary (no, not administrative assistant -- there is nothing wrong with the word secretary) before you were required to have a college degree. I could type and take shorthand, that is what was needed, and I learned that in high school.
I say....working, or going to trade school....doing jobs that illegals are doing. The last two years of high school can (not always) be merely the last brainwashing stages for the educrats...it's not necessary.
Yes, I know. See my post #7. Sadly, I catch most of my mistakes AFTER I post. Very bad habit of mine.
I have family and in laws who sacrificed their arses off to put their kids through college. Most of the silly brats took courses that do not even qualify them to ask; do you want fries with that?
If people have the want to become better educated, they will get the how by their own hook and crook.
My formal education ended at the eighth grade, but my seeking of knowledge has never ended.
I have been issued US patents, have chaired committees composed of professional engineers. I was blessed to have been able to retire from the private sector at age 52. Have I ever felt hampered or held back for lack of a sheep skin? No, not ever. It has been my personal experience that in the real world, producing results takes precedence over having a diploma.
Generations of males and females got jobs right out of high school and found themselves becoming productive members of society (I daresay, may of our young and not so young people would be far better off with a "productive" job than lounging around, using drugs, getting paid to do nothing and hating society in general.)
After WWII, men came back and decided to further their education with the GI Bill, though most did not and went to work, married and raised families.
Americans did not have the entitlement mentality that many do today. It's hard to feel "entitled" when you are working.
That is a big part of what is ruining our society, as may young people have gone to college, graduated, found that the jobs available aren't going to pay them what they think they deserve.
Those with the means to do or or not, decide to "get their Masters" not for the educational benefits that they will need for their future but merely as a way to avoid working!
True story. My father was a college professor (Veterinary Science). One of his advises was not cutting it either academically or in terms of the effort required. He had repeated talks with her trying to get her to step up the effort to no avail. Finally, he had a frank discussion with her about changing her course of study to something less demanding.
She told her father, a bigwig in the campus administration, that my Dad told her she was too dumb for the program. Big lie, but it didn't matter. Dad got reprimanded and demoted for telling the truth.
Long story short is that if ObaMao wants to go man to man against Santorum on this topic, then Santorum wins. There are tons of kids who have made successful and productive careers in an assortment of trades by not going to or getting out of college. There would be a lot more if the academic establishment wasn't hell bent on lying about the value of a degree in womyn's studies or other similar claptrap.
Fantastic! I have to say I’ve never seen his show (I watch almost no TV). Sounds like a good guy.
“Our tax policies and union policies are part of the problem, but the bottomline is that we cannot compete internationally unless we want to live like peasants and put up with scandalous amounts of pollution.”
I don’t necessarily agree. I think that we can compete against the Third World, simply because their corruption prevents them, in large part, from benefiting from their cheap labor structure...possibly to the point where it’s completely negated. We’ve never ALLOWED ourselves to try to compete, because every time we start making progress, a new ‘crisis’ (like Global Warming) pops up and causes us to shoot ourselves in the foot.
But I will definitely agree with you on labor (i.e., unions), BIG-TIME. Also agree on tax structure, and will add our legal system, racial quotas, and excessive worker safety regulations.
I dream of the day we start addressing those problem - because if we do, we might just kick butt again in the world.
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