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Every high school I've ever been to tells students about trade options. I myself push our career & technical programs to those students. E.g. i've tried to sell them on things like manufacturing tech/machining, medical assisting, and our EMS program.
In CT, until the last couple of years or so, there was nothing more than a 1 hour auditorium visit by counselors and some students from the trade schools to tell eighth grade students they existed at most schools.
There are a number of community colleges with some excellent programs in our area for manufacturing, electronics, culinary, welding, HVAC, etc. They are also supported by local businesses that offer apprentice programs and internships. Graduates of these programs have a high placement percentage with excellent starting salaries. A few high schools have started to pair up students with split programs with the community colleges which allow academic core courses in the morning and trade/speciality knowledge programs in the afternoon. Unfortunately, many times these programs are only offered in a few communities. Higher income communities often see these as "not for their kids" and as a result push students toward college yet these communities still experience similar high college drop out rates by the end of the sophomore year. For some students that are not bound for college, they leave high school with little or no marketable skills and often feel inadequate and defeated. In many cases those students have other talents that remain untapped that they are unaware of because they didn't fit the one-size-fits-all curriculum the school offered.
Education needs to bring in a staff with more diverse experience and increase its partnerships with outside programs, businesses and other community resources both public and private. It would require a huge shift in thinking but opportunities exist to provide more comprehensive experiences for students and at the same time provide opportunities to reduce the cost structure of education. In today's environment busing students to sit in the same building 6+ hours a day is antiquated and inadequate. Students should be receiving their learning in a variety of environments with many opportunities for meaningful direct and hands-on experiences.
Preparation as described above would likely result in far fewer students entering into loans to acquire the knowledge and skills needed after high school to enter the world as independent, productive and contributing citizens.
My mom is a Boomer parent, and from her context, pushing college made perfect sense. She was from Rhode Island. The working class union jobs there were DYING in the 1970s-80s when she was in her 20s-30s. What she saw all around her were factories closing down and the towns they were built around, dying. The kids she grew up with who went to college had stable careers. The kids who went to work in the factories were laid off in their 30s and they struggled to get anything better paying. Nothing paid uneducated people as well as those union jobs and they were dead. She also saw what factory work did to her parents. Her mother, my grandmother, worked in a thread factory near Warwick. She died of lung cancer before her time from breathing in the particulates for decades. That was my mom's boomer context. She did not want her kids to live a life like that, so she pushed college.
That's what the university system is structured for. Harvard, etc... they were created to train pastors.
Every high school I've ever been to tells students about trade options. I myself push our career & technical programs to those students. E.g. i've tried to sell them on things like manufacturing tech/machining, medical assisting, and our EMS program.
College was never meant to teach people trades. It was made to train priests and over time other professions that required high levels of reading, writing, and math ability. College teaches you to learn at a higher level. It gives you the tools to LEARN how to do jobs that require high levels of reading, writing, and math ability. It is not meant to teach you to "do." That's the way the military education system works. You choose a job, they teach you do that one thing and little else.
The trades were supposed to teach people trades. You don't need a school for that, you need trainees/apprentices out in the world learning from practitioners training to do the job. If we want more of this, kids should leave school at 16 or so and start DOING these jobs. The education system doesn't pay enough to attract practitioners to teach for them anyway.
The reason high schools do less vocational ed than they used to is because it's ridiculously expensive to run a shop. Low class sizes, spacious facilities with equipment requirements = very high cost. E.g. my state's community college system had to consolidate its auto-body repair program to two campuses because running multiples of them was outrageously high. We simply couldn't run it at multiple campuses with the kinds of low class sizes it had at our tuition rates.
My parents were both the first in their families to both attend college and graduate. This was only possible because they served in the military in World War II and were given benefits under a law known as the "GI Bill". The "GI Bill" paid college tuition, book fees, and a small living stipend for all veterans who wished to take advantage of it.
They went to college at the perfect time. America needed college graduates at the time and within a few years of graduating law school (father) and nursing school (mother) they went on to earn compensation far in excess of the average in the country. This left both my parents with an unshakeable belief that their children would attend college. The funny thing was I grew up without ever believing I had a choice. My father was an extraordinarily gifted in what I will call "verbal persuasion". Few people were able to successfully debate or argue with him. As a result, both my sister I attended college (paid for by my father) and obtained graduate degrees. In fact, my sister earned a PhD and retired as a college professor a few years ago.
I paid for my own son to earn his BS degree in accounting. My daughter is still trying to figure out what she will do with her life, but despite the high cost of college she knows that if she wants to go back and pursue any useful major that I will pay for that too despite my bitching and whining about high college tuition. It was sort of an unspoken promise I made to both my parents.
I realize college is not for all young people. Yet, the purpose of my story is to show how much college was drilled into some of us and the difference that it has made in many of our lives.
I do feel the country has some obligation to young people to see that they at least get started in the right direction. It does not mean that obligation is never-ending or limitless, but it is a real one.
There's nothing like simply trying to imagine a problem doesn't exist isn't there? I show you that college tuition has gone up at 4X the rate of inflation and your only response is to say that things don't always increase at the same rate. Sorry, what I've shown is that there is a systemic problem that needs to be addressed on some level. What I see is a system that is going to prevent many talented young people from realizing their ambitions. It is unfortunate and worse it shows just how badly things have deteriorated too.
Ok, so you show me there is a systemic problem. So what did I do? Not sit down and whine like a lot of people do and I did something about it. As parents, my wife and I did what we had to do and our daughter went to college despite the 4X bigger than the rate of inflation. I can go on and on. You can stay stuck in your view if you wish to do so. It is your prerogative and I respect that. From my end, I share my experience with other parents as I have for years. Guess what? Many have followed our example and have put their children through college with no debts after they graduated. I follow the axiom that we used a lot in the Army "Don't be part of the problem, be part of the solution."
Lastly, your zeal to be right led you to put words in my mouth indirectly. When did I say that a problem does not exist? With that in mind, why does it exist then? You can go on and on using your time on it. Will that change the system? I doubt it. The best I can do share suggestions so people can achieve as best as they can and still be happy.
Prevent talented young people to realize their ambitions? I did not realize many of my ambitions in life. What did I do? Sit down and find other goals so I can have satisfying life, it helped a lot. I see many young people breaking down because they decided to stay stuck in their misery instead of finding ways to achieve their goals or change course somewhere else. That is not what I, my wife, and my children did. All of us did realize everything we wished in life, but we found ways to be resilient, adjust, and still be happily successful in life.
So, fine, you stay focus on how bad it is. Keep going then.
You have a great day.
elamigo
We live near a state university that often ranks high as the 'best party school' in the nation. We know a number of students. We have been shocked many times to observe how frequently this college provides extra perks to the students.
This state has over 3,000 miles of ocean coastline. There are dozens of sailing schools that offer week-long sailing excursions. In mid-semester these students are offered the opportunity to take a break from classes to go live on a sailboat for a week, all expenses paid by the university. No thought is given to the issue of skipping a week worth of classes, and they provide paid tutoring services for students to make up whatever classes they miss.
College tuition today pays for a lot more stuff than it did in the 1970s or 1980s.
I was invited to travel with a group of grad students from Penn state, who had hired a local guide to take them on a kayaking trip to go the length of a river that passes by my farm. The guide is a friend, and he is a member of the tribe whose reservation is on the islands in the middle of the river. Their history is made of being nomads who spent the year moving from camp site to camp site up and down the length of this river. During their trip the guide had them stop every 20 minutes to look for arrowheads, and he told many stories about his tribe's lifestyle along the river. He took them all the way out to the ocean.
It was a fun trip. And it was paid for by Penn State university.
On-campus culture has developed in a way that lures potential students to each college. The colleges make money from holding onto large numbers of students, and they feel they must compete amongst all the other colleges.
All seniors in high school should learn about ROI. Return on Investment. They should be forced to apply ROI to their college plans. How irrational is it to take out $200,000 student loans for a "profession" that really doesn't exist in the real world. Just how many high paying "gender studies" jobs are there? Just how many high paying jobs are there for 19th Century French Literature PHDs? Take the seniors on a road trip to a couple of Star Bucks .....ask all the highly educated coffee servers about their degrees.
Try borrowing $400,000 to buy a $200,000 house. Try borrowing $100,000 to buy a $25,000 car. This is what is happening within the colleges and student loan programs. Get a worthless degree, can't pay your loan, no problem.
Yeah, I get that college is more expensive today, and granted I went back before this in the mid 2000s, but when I was in college I worked 2 jobs and even did odd jobs to get by. Now all you hear is complaining about how much it is. Sure it's more today, but for those that complain about how expensive college is today, have legitimate grievances or do you think it's just more from lazy/entitled people that complain?
A little bit of both.
College is still affordable as long as you are willing to go to a "decent" school, rather than an ivy league school or a really well-known state school.
You can still get an accredited Masters degree for under $20k, and you can still get an accredited Bachelor's degree for under $17k. You can also get an associates for well under $10k... in some cases, almost half.
People need to take into consideration the cost before they go to schools. Everyone wants a house by the beach, but only a few can afford it. Just like everyone wants to go to (insert big school name here), but maybe it's better to go to a smaller school for 2 years first.
Also, schools have nearly doubled the amount of administrators, which cost the school significantly more money. It requires nearly 25 students to pay for a single administrator (above the cost of education and other fees).
All seniors in high school should learn about ROI. Return on Investment. They should be forced to apply ROI to their college plans. How irrational is it to take out $200,000 student loans for a "profession" that really doesn't exist in the real world. Just how many high paying "gender studies" jobs are there? Just how many high paying jobs are there for 19th Century French Literature PHDs? Take the seniors on a road trip to a couple of Star Bucks .....ask all the highly educated coffee servers about their degrees.
Try borrowing $400,000 to buy a $200,000 house. Try borrowing $100,000 to buy a $25,000 car. This is what is happening within the colleges and student loan programs. Get a worthless degree, can't pay your loan, no problem.
You are looking at college as if it were a scenario where students thought that by going to college it would increase their potential earnings. In reality potential earnings never enters the mind of these people.
Even if you clearly laid out the idea that a specific major has no career potential, they would look at you in wonder, why anyone would care?
Someone mentioned a lottery in the state to provide scholarships. That's an excellent idea.
I also think there are plenty of very rich people in this country who could easily part with some millions to provide scholarships to deserving students. Yes, I know they're giving lots of money away already. But how about focusing specifically on college scholarships rather than another arts contribution or feeding the apes in Africa?
You are looking at college as if it were a scenario where students thought that by going to college it would increase their potential earnings. In reality potential earnings never enters the mind of these people.
I've been working with teens for years. For sure, earning potential is definitely on their minds.
The problem is that for 12 years it's been drummed into their heads by the education industry that any bachelor's degree will give them limitless earning potential.
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Even if you clearly laid out the idea that a specific major has no career potential, they would look at you in wonder, why anyone would care?
They would look at you in disbelief because the government, the banks, and the education industry says that they need a bachelor's degree to live...and any bachelor's degree will do.
I've been working with teens for years. For sure, earning potential is definitely on their minds.
The problem is that for 12 years it's been drummed into their heads by the education industry that any bachelor's degree will give them limitless earning potential.
They would look at you in disbelief because the government, the banks, and the education industry says that they need a bachelor's degree to live...and any bachelor's degree will do.
I attended an event this morning, where I got into a long conversation with a university professor who works in the physics department. Due to their current D.E.I. focus she is concerned that if she were to explain to students that only certain degrees will equate to good wages she would likely be fired. Explaining reality would go against the current politics of campus culture.
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