This quote from an AJC article (login) about a new “career-oriented” high school in Rockdale County disturbs me:
“Too many kids throughout the state have been going to college when they didn’t need to,” [Mike Lott, Rockdale's economic development director] said. “A career-oriented school like RCA gives them another option for finding a meaningful career.”
I guess he has a point, though; why focus on such pointless endeavors as higher education, when our military needs all the money it can get?
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18 Responses to "College is so passé"
I guess I have mixed feelings about this. I certainly don’t think lots of kids go to college that don’t need to. I do think lots of kids end up dropping out of high school, or graduating without plans to go on to higher education, without skills that would help them get a decent paying job. To the extent that these classes would help someone who might otherwise dropping out stay around to get some practical job skills so they aren’t stuck in a minumum-wage job when they graduate, it’s a good thing. To the extent it will be used to steer poor kids into trade jobs they don’t want, then it has the potential to be really bad.
Vocational educations are a good thing, and people mistakenly think that college is the only avenue for attaining success in this country. That isn’t necessarily the case and vocational education funds are, unfortunately, being slashed everywhere (particularly here in Athens-Clarke County where there is a very good apprenticeship program which is on the verge of seeing all of its funding dry up). I’ve worked on Clarke Central’s Vocational Advisory Committee as well as the Clarke County School District’s Multicultural Task Force, so I’ve seen the many positives that come from these types of programs.
I think more folks should go to college because having a college degree is a very good thing when it comes time for finding a job. But, then again, understanding and knowing trades and crafts are very good things as well, and different people have different callings in life. Having the appropriate resources and training to assist these people is quite necessary.
Check out Matt Yglesias’s post on this, which he linked from Atrios. Has some good stuff in it.
I didn’t read the linked to article, but what does the quote (or the implications of the quote) have to do with the military? Seems like it’s commenting on the kids who don’t want or need a higher education, not the ones who can’t afford it.
“Well, there’s no literal connection…”
Amber, you are so right… I wonder if this guy was also the school’s military recruiter?
I’m going to go on a limb and say there is no actual military connection, but rather than Amber was making a comment against the war or something (which makes duane’s comment even more puzzling to me).
Nonexistent-but-implied military connections notwithstanding, I disagree with you as well, Amber. I met many people at UGA who didn’t care enough about 98% of their classes to even remain conscious for them, but college was the “only logical option” for these people.
Beyond dismissing their problem as sheer laziness, I think different vocational education paths would really help people who don’t necessarily want to go to college, but feel like they have no other options.
Vocational education is certainly valuable. I knew plenty of guys who took auto shop because they liked to work on cars. Fine — we all need mechanics. But what we really need are ETHICAL BUSINESSMEN who are also mechanics. There is no reason why people who want to work on cars shouldn’t be steered toward a vocational school that will not only teach them how to be a good mechanic but also how to run a business — a small business MBA sort of thing, right? And that would be good for everyone. Small businesses, completely in spite of what you might think, are the backbone of this country. So why not use vocational schools to make more small businessmen?
To clarify: I do not think there is anything wrong with vocational education. I think it is important, valuable, and needed. In fact, it may surprise some of you who commented, but I think this new school is a good idea. However, I am wary of the trend or tendecy to push poorer students toward vocational education and jobs right out of high school rather than college. I think both are equally valuable, I just think students should be exposed to both as equally possible options. When I worked in a middle school in a low socioeconomic area of Dallas, TX, there was a huge push toward vocational education, with almost no consideration given to college. The option was not even presented as a viable one to students.
Something else to consider: how many 17-year-old kids understand the value of a college education? It took me until my third or fourth year of college to realize it wasn’t a waste of time. I do think college is promoted as a cure-all solution that it isn’t, but that doesn’t mean people shouldn’t go.
I wonder if they offer a dual major of “Intro to Conversational Chinese” and “Shoe Polishing 1101.”
You have a very good point, Amber. More people need to experience higher education and generally enlighten themselves about anything that might interest them. That being said, unless you spend big money on tuition to get into a school with a big research budget, or art budget, or former novelists… You are going to end up with a fairly cookie-cutter degree. Sure everybody takes different classes, but most of them are designed to suck up those valuable credit-hours for a wonderful misdirection of talent and interest.
I think that a lot of people will benefit in a lot of ways from a partial college degree; if nothing else the college prof’s are generally more open intellectually… Most people just need jobs. Vocational schools will provide people with an immediate marketable skill rather than a small piece of paper that says you’re smart.
College should be an option for only those that need to go, not just because you have nothing better to do. It’s almost a shame to see good teachers spending a lot of time teaching mass-production classes of > 100 people at a time when they could be teaching special-interest courses to a genuinely interested smaller class. Just because you go to college doesn’t mean you learn anything.
Hat tip to Coleman; word. Especially on this point:
The same could be said for vocational school or for the e-learnings they give me at work though. I don’t think higher education is right for everybody, but it’s the best choice for anyone who doesn’t know exactly what they want to do for a living in high school (which is nearly everyone) and for most people who do.
Another thing to consider is that these days, more and more employers require a college degree to even consider someone for employment, whereas this was not the case 50, 30, even 20 years ago. Also, on average, people who have a high school diploma but no college degree earn less now than they did 20 or 30 years ago. In 2003 the average income of a high school graduate was $28,254. In 1980, that average income (adjusted for inflation to reflect today’s dollars) was $30,590, and in 1970 it was $42,000. Meanwhile, cost of living has skyrocketed.
And, this is somewhat of a tangent, but how many college graduates do you know who are barely scraping by? I have a hell of a lot of debt, as do most of my college-educated friends, and our salaries aren’t exactly anything to sing and dance about. With wages stagnating or even decreasing, but cost of living steadily increasing, it’s just another example of how the gap between rich and poor is widening every day, and it is increasingly difficult for “the common man” to get by.
That being said… if someone can pursue what they are interested in by means of a vocational-oriented high school education rather than college, then more power to them. They’ll avoid all the student loan and credit card debt, for one thing. If they can make a living at their job without a college degree, then good for them. But sadly that’s becoming much less attainable.
(Caveat: if this makes no sense it’s because I’m still all doped up on Sudafed.)
Good points by all, particularly to those who encouraged vocational school in addition to college. I’m a firm believer in higher education, but often kids who have borderline grades and lower SAT scores feel they don’t have any alternative. Encouraging vocational schools and technical schools (like Athens Tech) are positive things which can give them marketable skills, allow them to earn a steady income and potentially plan to build on their education down the road.
And it depends on the education and skill you have. For instance, one of my best friends is an electrician. He was forced to drop out of college after only a year or so, spent a few weeks in an intensive training program and now makes very, very good money (considerably more than I make). Blue collar work is hard work and it often rewards quite well. My father-in-law is another example. He does heating and air in Savannah.
Amber, it seems odd to me that you quoted dollars adjusted for inflation, but then also bemoaned the rising cost of living. That’s a little redundant, though I suspect it was the Sudafed talking…
Your suspicions are correct.
Anyway. You get my point.