13 years of education - - worthless? (colleges, med school, geography, astronomy)

[golfgal]

Originally Posted by Padgett2

The luckiest students are those that live in areas with a college or university near-by. Our school system is set up so that those that choose an Advanced Placement course (and do good work) will be allowed to attend college for their Senior Year. The really exceptional ones may go in their Junior year. The college year and credits fulfill the requirement for high school graduation.

Thus, it's possible for a student to finish high school with two years of college already done. My two oldest grands finished their Senior year this way.

Or move to Minnesota and any high school junior or senior can take college course that double count for high school and college credits. Many students that go this route end up graduating from high school and starting college as a junior--all for free except the cost of textbooks, lab fees, etc.

[J-Man]

A recomended read for all of you.

The wisdom of avoiding higher education

[J-Man]

And one more.

Why the Job Market Is Slanted in Favor of College Graduates by Gary North

[John23]

It's a very cynical view, but I think most of "education" is a giant con set up by employers to turn out fresh workers that really don't know much about the world.

Education walls you off from reality, it paints the perfect picture for your future, (get good grades, graduate from highschool and college, get a good job and live happily ever after), and then you realize the world is nothing like what you were taught.

It depends on what you want to do, you can do well for yourself in alot of areas (plumbing, real estate investing, a small business).

But if you think about it logically...

-You're in school from age 5 to 21/22. That's 16, 17 years!!

And all you know at the end is how to get a minimum wage or barely living wage job. Very few people leave at 21/22 and the next day, they can fully support themselves and they ride off into the sunset.

You're in school 7 hours a day (8-3 was my schedule), 5 days a week, say 9 months out of the year. 35 hours a week! For 16, 17 years. Learning nothing.

When you look at this mortgage mess, and 1 million or 2 million people are going to lose their homes, and out of 17 years of school, they teach nothing about basic finance, it's embarrassing.

Why not teach small business skills when you're 15, 16?

Why not teach technical skills at 16, 17, 18?

I graduated HS in '96 and I remember thinking how stretched out everything was. Everything takes much longer than it should.

Why not set up international studies at 16, and study abroad for 6 months? That'd be great for kids.

[Prettygyrl777]

Originally Posted by golfgal

Or move to Minnesota and any high school junior or senior can take college course that double count for high school and college credits. Many students that go this route end up graduating from high school and starting college as a junior--all for free except the cost of textbooks, lab fees, etc.

Many schools (in many states) are doing that. The name of the program may be different depending on where you are - in Florida, it's 'dual enrollment'. It's possible for a highschool senior to graduate with 2 years of college completed.

[katie45]

Bravo J-Man and John23!!!

Case in point about new grad salaries. The majority of the secretaries at our company earn 20-30% more than the college grads who have been with the firm at least 5 yrs longer than the secretaries! Well, at least our company realizes who really does all the work!

And as both John23 and I have stated, the school system has more than ample time to teach students a trade so that by the time they even graduate from high school they should be able to make a good living.

Our current school systems are a joke. The kids who attended the old one-room school houses graduated from the 8th grade knowing more than our high school grads do today.

[Padgett2]

I think the School Systems are waking up to the fact that they made a big mistake when they stopped teaching trades, etc. There's a big push in our state to return to some of the older courses like bookkeeping, drafting and shop.

However, the first screams are already being heard about how this will hurt the poor children by not preparing them for college. So now, they aren't prepared to earn a living and they have no interest in college , and this is thought to be better??? Gimme a break! We need the school boards to had a more realistic viewpoint on life.

[emjbulls]

Originally Posted by Mike in TN

They did those tracts when I was in high school in 1995. There was a technical path, university path, and dual path.

I don't think it was implemented well though.

I think there are a few things there that make it successful. First, school funding is not dependent on property taxes, it's nationalized across the country so if someone is on the college track in a ritzy area, it will be the same standards and materials and funding as the college track in a poor area and money goes to the education of everyone, regardless of what track they are on.

Another reason is cultural. Universities and colleges there are way more selective (at least when hubby went which was awhile ago..I'm not sure if it's still quite as selective). Very few people get in and a lot of people flunk out. Therefore, it's ok to not go to college or university, and if you go and don't pass, it's ok too. As long as you have a job there, people respect what you do for a living. Here, we tend to look down on non-college degree jobs so kids pick up on that and don't want to go on tracks that aren't college oriented.

[Padgett2]

sorry, I have to disagree. In most areas, schools get additional tax monies from local property taxes. There will be school bonds issued for new building programs, also paid by property taxes. The millage rate will vary from year to year. School taxes are a big hunk of our yearly local county tax bill.


Federal funding is not enough to pay for the total expense of the school systems. The States also fund the local school systems and the amounts will vary accordingly. It's not a one size fits all situation.

[gardener34]

Yes, there are a few driven individuals I know where college was just slowing them down. They had a vision for a business or a products or whatever, or it started as a side business and just snowballed.

They were intelligent enough to know when they needed help and just hired the "degrees" to help them run and grow their company.

This is hard to do. And many of them, it was an existing family business they helped to grow enormous.