Before you read this comment by a reader, let me say what I believe: Everyone should pursue as much education as they want and as they need. I believe that education is a human right and should be free through higher education, an investment by society in its future. Not everyone wants to go to college or feels the need to go to college; they may change their mind at a later date, and if they do, that’s okay. There is no reason that everyone should be expected to follow the same path to a degree. The average age of college students is somewhere in the mid-20s, reflecting the fact that many people start or drop back in when they want to do so. And that is as it should be. Higher education should be a matter of personal choice and readiness, not an obligation that one fulfills grudgingly to get a piece of paper.
This reader sees many paths to a successful life through the experiences of her family members:
I teach in a low income (nearly 80% free/reduced lunch) public high school and we have been told to ensure every student is college ready and focused on attending post-secondary education. While I don’t completely disagree with ensuring students have the skills and knowledge to make any post-secondary choice, I don’t think pushing all students to focus on college as the only real option is positive.
I use my own family as an example. My dad finished an AA and then completed his plumbing apprenticeship. He has been a successful plumber for over 40 years. My mom completed her BA in Accounting when I was a child and worked when we needed the extra money. She recently completed her MS in Accounting (at age 61) and has worked in accounting and payroll positions for the last 20 years.
There are 4 kids in our family – 2 girls and 2 boys. I went from high school to university completing my BA in English and later my teaching certification, M.Ed in International Education, and am currently working on my Ph.D. My younger sister got her AS moved on to university and got her BS and her teaching certification, taught for a while and went back and earned her M.Ed. My brothers, raised in the same household, took different paths. One went from high school to the Marines, served 3 tours in Iraq, and after 4 years in the military got out and has earned his AS and is now slowly working on his BS. The other tried community college and hated it. He then got into the pipe fitters union and began his apprenticeship. He’s currently working and considering a degree in construction management so that if he gets injured or simply too old to do the heavy pipe fitting work he has another option.
Now for the best part of the tale. We’re all four happily married. We all own homes. We all have enough money to have the things we need and some of the things we want. None of us is rich. We all took different roads to success and did need post-secondary training to be successful, but we didn’t all need college.
This story shows my students they have options and that whichever option they take they will be supported and can be successful. The total focus on college bound and college ready makes those who don’t have access to federal loans feel defeated. It makes those who just can’t imagine a few more years behind a school desk feel unsuccessful. Let’s show our students that they have options and how to access those options rather that focus on only one option.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Along the same lines, read this book review in the NY Times today titled “School of Hard Knocks”….For success, character trumps cognitive skills.
Along with military training, this story highlights the importance of union job training, apprenticeships and job protections to maintaining working families who are, after all, the backbone of our country.
No, this whole movement to send every kid to college is ridiculous. Kids have different abilities, and few (a handful in every class) are what I would call, “intellectuals.” Just sending everyone to college is not going to make things better. It would just dumb down college, which is what is happening already. Why do you need a college degree to work at Walmart or Target or do landscaping? It is not like jobs will magically appear just because everyone is going to college. Ideally, the top 10% would go to college, and these kids would be the best and brightest, and then they would be pushed to excellence at college. This group would be the scientists, doctors, lawyers, and teachers, etc. The rest of society would do apprenticeship programs, etc. And yes, this includes business people. Has anyone seen an I.Q. distribution chart? How many kids are really above average intelligence? This whole movement to dumb down our colleges is makes me sick. Also, the college system, with its sky-high costs, is really a money-making scam! Many students are going to be disappointed after throwing away thousands of dollars. There will be a lot of angry service workers making minimum wage wasting away in perpetual debt servitude. This drive to send all kids to college is very ill conceived and silly, but I guess it is par for the course, isn’t it?
Why would you say the best and brightest would go to college. I know of some very intelligent people who opted to be plumbers because they were good with their hands and enjoyed it. Students should be encouraged to pursue what they want to do. They will find out if they can or can’t do it and adjust their goals. Once motivation comes from within, students will go after what they want. This happens at diffferent time in a student’s life. We have to keep pushing and encouraging them until they get it and then be there to guide them. Let a computer do that.
A few years ago I had a student who was a genius when it came to woodworking and carpentry. As a high school freshman, he was making amazing furniture and other items in his wood class.
However, he was struggling in the academic subjects. I taught geography, which is required for graduation. He was bombing out, and really had very little interest. His father asked to meet with me and the student. I told the student straight out: I know that you don’t really care about this subject, but you HAVE to pass so that you can graduate. And then, go and build beautiful furniture.
I’ve lost track of that student, but I hope he graduated. I also expect that he will make more money as a carpenter than I ever will. And he will be happy and successful. He didn’t need college, and probably would have hated it. BUT, he will be successful. Isn’t that what we should want for all kids?
Jennifer,
I had intended my comment (below) in reply to Jack above. I hope I didn’t accidentally reply to you. I totally agree with your comment. My youngest brother is definitely intelligent and he chose to be a pipe fitter. My dad reads at least 3 books/week (usually more) on all sorts of topics fiction and non fiction, and he’s been a plumber for more than 40 years.
I wrote the original post, and of the kids in my family, I’d have to say my brother who took the military path was the one in the top 10% academically. I did fine in school, but more importantly, I love academics. My sister, who like me enjoys learning but wasn’t a straight ‘A’ student, got her BS in Molecular Biology with a minor in music. Not only is she a biology teacher, but also a singer/songwriter. I’m not sure you’ve hit the nail on the head with the “brightest” going to college. Maybe only those who really enjoy learning should do so.
You’re right. It doesn’t have to be a correlation between academic talent and desire to go to college. I’ve seen students who were very academic and yet became repairmen or plumbers or whatever and do very well. My husband struggled academically all through high school and yet graduated from college and is a teacher now. I was simply giving an example. Thanks for making me clarify!
My special ed kids are supposed to be college ready even though they can barely read. We recommend Acces-VR which is a state funded vocational training liaison for handicapped people from age 18 through adulthood. Since everyone is told they can go to college, my students and their parents opt for community college instead of vocational training. What invariably happens is the kids can’t pass the college entrance exams and are told they have to take remedial classes before being matriculated. They can’t pass the remedial classes and eventually drop out, take unskilled low paying jobs and can’t make it on their own as they move into adulthood. In the not so distant past every school in NYC where I teach had a vocational program where kids who were not college ready could succeed. My school had auto mechanics where i used to get my oil changed by supervised students. When my school closed and became four new boutique schools the auto mechanic program went bye bye and were replaced with science labs for all those college ready students. Bring back the old days!
I’ve heard from several friends and relatives who teach college, that many of their students struggle with doing college level work. Unfortunately, the conclusion made is that the high school teachers have done a poor job in preparing their students, and have neglected to teach the skills. I’m not a high school teacher, but I seriously doubt that the problem of not being prepared could be laid on teachers.
We have documentation here in CT of a reformer who required all
students,whether they show up or not, to earn at least a 55 for the marking period. The kids figure out if they score at least one 75 they can pass for the year. This reformer also did not enforce the attendance policy, so they didn’t even have to show up. This inflates the graduation rate and makes him look good. This isn’t about the kids; this is about self serving adults trying to rake in the dough pretending to reform the urban schools. Sick, isn’t it? Then they travel from city to city selling their snakeoil.
Forgot to mention, the teachers have no choice. I you don’t follow the policy you are written up for insubordination. Then, they try to eliminate your position.
People are dreaming if they think everyone needs and should go to college.
As long as all options are presented in a fair way as possible, I’m okay with it.
I am a little flabbergasted at the responses here. The problem in the end would look something like this. Private schools and elite (rich) public schools would have a much, much higher distribution of college students and a higher distribution of succeeding college students. Poorer and urban schools would have lower percentages going to college and succeeding, which I assume is what it already is.
Given the responses above, I feel like people would argue, “Well, that’s just life for you. That’s how these individuals were made to be.” And fail to parse the issue that it is not genes and is not essential traits or characteristics of these students that causes these disparities and differences in their lives. It is instead some complex factor of socialization/education, afforded opportunities, family structures, among other complex environmental factors. Of course, this requires us to be humble about our own selves and ask tough questions about why our own selves are the way they are, why we succeed and why we fail; and in the end accepting some deterministic or behavioristic model of the self, which is the only acceptable move left.
By the way, even Pinker, model evolutionary psychologist, claims that the biggest differences we see in our schools, and I assume he would accept in the ability to gain a bachelor’s degree as well, come because of environment differences, though he may weasel in and out of that some. Or in other words, almost any set of genes born unto Amy Chua was likely to go to and succeed at college. I don’t see any way around that conclusion.
The point is to give kids options again in high school and let them decide, not for schools to put students into tracks –whether for college or for trades. Vocational education options have diminished now that virtually all public high schools have gone college prep.
While it may seem ideal to push college for all and try to pevent low-income and minority students from being disproportionately over-represented in low paying jobs, I suspect eliminating Voc Ed has probably just left a lot of kids without any vocational guidance or preparation at all. Anyone know if high schools are providing career counseling for kids with no interest in going to college –especially when gangs may be enticing them?
China http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390443545504577566752847208984.html and South Korea http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/premium/economy-watch/s-korea-graduate-glut-hits-young-job-seekers-20120828 pushed college and now they have a glut of people with degrees and not enough jobs for them.
We have that problem here, too: http://chronicle.com/blogs/innovations/the-college-graduate-glut-evidence-from-labor-markets/32997
why don’t you just ask the students what they want and then give them options stop force feeding the voice of tomorrow with the theories of old,
Don’t tell students they can’t do what they want because there is no successful industry or market for their ideas show them a source to make a market to make an industry
example: A teacher is finishing up a lecture of the American Dream. And asks the class “Does anyone have a dream job, or a dream career.”
Tyler, a student that sleeps all the time that smells bad in class, doesn’t like to socialize with the other students and has “an attitude most of the time” stayed awake through the lecture and raises his hand.
Teacher: “Yes Tyler thank you for joining us today what is your American Dream.”
Tyler: “I would like to be a Rock Star because they get hot girls everyone looks up to them and they are filthy rich.”
AVERAGE TEACHER RESPONSE: “Well Tyler you like everyone in this room in this school and in this universe wants to be a rock star unfortunately the chances of that happening are slim so you need to find a back up strategy to fall back on encase your dream doesn’t work how you like it too.
Average Tyler Response: ” ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ.”
NEW AGE TEACHER RESPONSE: ” Tyler you can do what ever in life makes you happy and their are some great programs and clubs here at school that can help you with your dream, Why we have a band class that will teach you how to play music, we have a choir class that will inspire you to produce music with your voice, we also offer classes to help with your discovery of different genres of music your interested in being apart of like “Music Appreciation, Worlds of Music.” just to give you some ideas on how to make that happen for you sooner or make it easier and thank you for raising your hand and sharing.”
Tyler Joins Aerosmith The End