Thoughts on education

I was raised in a family that valued education: go to school, do your best, go to college, and "make something" of yourself. I have one who is staring college in the face, and seems to be college-bound. That said, I think what we call "education" is over-rated. My kids' retired pediatrician once told me that he had no college degree -- in the late 1960s he had to have 2 years of college and college algebra, basic biology and chemistry to go to med school. Oh, and nurses learned their craft in hospitals, not colleges.

An older gentleman I know, an attorney for many years, has a bachelor's degree, only, as opposed to the Juris Doctor usually required today. In Taxman's field, in the 1980s (when I was in college), a bachelor's degree was required to sit for the CPA exam, now it is the equivalent of a master's. I theorize that the availability of financial aid and student loans has inflated higher ed and devalued K12.

Per a very interesting article on how a BA is overrated:

Only 23 percent of the 1.3 million high-school graduates of 2007 who took the ACT examination were ready for college-level work in the core subjects of English, math, reading, and science.

Is this because students at better secondary schools don't take the ACT exam or because K12 does not seem to be preparing its grads for either college or the workforce. Probably both.

You could lock the collegebound in a closet for four years, and they'd still go on to earn more than the pool of non-collegebound — they're brighter, more motivated, and have better family connections.

I always suspected that this was true. People in jobs that require a bachelor's degree (think law, accounting, education, medicine) are going to be fostering connections that could one day benefit their children.

In the 1960s my father in law was paid a family wage right out of high school, climbing poles for the phone company. A "family wage" wouldn't have made anyone rich, or allowed a wife a separate car, tony schools, and a large home... but can a high school graduate today earn any semblence of a living wage right out of high school? Why or why not? This is simply anectotal -- the folks I know without college degrees who earn family wages either a.) are gifted and talented and even entrepreneurial in culinary arts, nursing, funeral directing, construction scheduling, or appraising b.) are well skilled in a trade (brick masonry, plumbing) c.) work long hours in a technical field e.g., heating and air, information technology, often bolstered by a union.

I disagree that the purpose of high school is to enable its graduates to get a job. The purpose of K12 is to educate. I have been asked why my children take Latin, logic, and higher maths, when they may or may not attend college. I educate them so that they will not be led around my the nose by the media, partisanship, or whatever sounds good. If their studies should lead them to college (and I hope that it does) then that is well and good. If it doesn't, I hope that they are the best educated homemaker, hairdresser, pole-climber, plumber, secretary, or whatever God has called them to be.

Simple life experience suggests that this is true:

If your child's high-school grades and test scores are in the bottom half for his class, resist the attempts of four-year colleges to woo him. Colleges make money whether or not a student learns, whether or not she graduates, and whether or not he finds good employment.

If your student is in the top half of her high-school class and is motivated to attend college for reasons other than going to parties and being able to say she went to college, have her apply to perhaps a dozen colleges. Colleges vary less than you might think (at least on factors you can readily discern in the absence of the accountability requirements I advocate above), yet financial-aid awards can vary wildly. ...

If your child is one of the rare breed who knows what he wants to do and isn't unduly attracted to academics or to the Animal House environment that characterizes many college-living arrangements, then take solace in the fact that countless other people have successfully taken the noncollege road less traveled. Some examples: Maya Angelou, David Ben-Gurion, Richard Branson, Coco Chanel, Walter Cronkite, Michael Dell, Walt Disney, Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, Bill Gates, Alex Haley, Ernest Hemingway, Wolfgang Puck, John D. Rockefeller Sr., Ted Turner, Frank Lloyd Wright, and nine U.S. presidents, from Washington to Truman.

College is a wise choice for far fewer people than are currently encouraged to consider it. It's crucial that they evenhandedly weigh the pros and cons of college versus the aforementioned alternatives. The quality of their lives may depend on that choice.


Good food for thought.