It’s not the district it’s the parents. When I lived outside of St. Louis parents in my community voted for more STEM classes for GATE kids and got rid of the trade related classes, despite most kids not qualifying for GATE in the first place. America’s biggest global advantage is our optimism, its greatest weakness is optimism, as everyone has this idea their kid will be an astronaut, NBA player, “influencer” more than the reality of becoming a middle manager or carpenter. This is even more exasperated in inner city communities where nobody tells kids that there are only ~400 players who get paid well in the NBA and the average injury rate, instead of how much a master electrician makes, let alone a master electrician who has a fleet of service trucks.
Trust fund babies to helicopter parents cannot do manual labor. We as a society have told kids they are sub-standard if they don’t go to college and we have shamed parents for not getting their kids into college.
The artificial lowering of acceptance rates and class sizes that do not grow with endowment size or population are a prime example of how universities are one piece of the problem.
Bingo. I’m fairly ancient but I remember having to actually meet standards to get into University. I wasn’t dumb but I spent very, very little time studying. I made it in because I did very well on the ACT test. Most of my friends went the trade route and are pretty successful.
Higher education should be for those who are going to benefit from it, not just degree factories were graduates end up $100k in debt working the same job as someone that didn’t.
I’m a vocational tech high school grad with no collage degree. I had no desire for collage but hungered for advancement. Electronics was my major in high school but it was pre-computer days so not much to grab onto then. My dad told me to chose a field of work you enjoy and ALWAYS have a plan B, C and D. As a “gear head” I chose auto body to start. Then night school for welding certification, front end alignment certification, A/C certification and computer repair certification. I have quit jobs, been fired from jobs but have NEVER had one day of unemployment. Not to be political in any way, but if one pursues a “worthless” degree, by that I mean (something not sought after or useful in the today’s world) then you had better have a plan B,C or D!
Agreed.
As a reference point, I had my SAT scores sent to three colleges; at one, I was in the 99+ percentile; at another, 99. And at Georgia Tech, I was in the 37th Percentile. So not your average school.
But a few years later, a Scout in the troop where I was helping was an idiot. But since his father was a GT Alum, and gave lots of money, he got in there with no problem. (no idea what happened to him later; I moved away shortly thereafter).
I’ve had to work with new people in the last few years who have college degrees… and the doorknob knows more than they do. I hate to say it, but I agree with you. College degrees are less meaningful than they were 10-15 years ago.
Instead of everyone getting a participation trophy, they are getting As and Bs
College degrees mean less because everyone is getting them. Teachers do have to teach at the level of the class, so if the class can’t write, they have to teach at that level. They actually want to remove the algebra requirement from AA degrees because not everyone can do algebra.
Not everyone can read, either. Should they get rid of that requirement?
Anyway, this is why everyone needs a BA/BS now to get a job at McD’s: it is equivalent to a high school diploma. Where once a job required a BA/BS, it now requires a master’s. I’ve seen it in my own field. It used to require a BA/BS. I thought I was overqualified with a doctorate. Now, it requires doctorate plus postgraduate work. Same job. Nothing has changed but the minimum job requirements. At this point, I’m unqualified. LOL.
I concur with this also. Many of my students have a hard time doing basic math. And yet, they are taking our finance and accounting courses. And I have to teach to them. To be fair, my night classes usually consist of people who are not fresh out of high school so I do include some remedial stuff and really break down to the lowest levels how to make calculations. This helps those students get brought up to speed. I intentionally do not use the word “algebra” in most cases as to not resurrect the “hate” so many have for algebra.
For the upper-level courses, calculus used to be required. Students could take it before the course or along with our corporate finance course. Now, basic math is the only requirement so as to not discourage interest.
Heck no! If anything, adequate comprehension and reading ability should be a prerequisite for any business-type of courses.
I would love to see an apprenticeship approach to certain things like accounting, bookkeeping, and taxation. Giving people adequate time to learn, retain, and up-skill themselves. This attitude of cramming in as much as possible in as short of time as possible is some of the problem with higher education. Cram in too much stuff and nothing will stick.
Northeastern University in Massachusetts has had a work-study program which has been highly competitive and desirable for many years. I never could understand why it did not become a model for higher education.
