A college education isn't the right thing for everybody or even most people. Vocational training in high school is what is needed for those not inclined to go to college but can work in jobs which provide a good standard of living.
Long before President Obama vowed last year that
America will "have the highest proportion of college
graduates in the world" by 2020, the premium
placed on going to college was firmly embedded in
the American psyche.
The case is compelling: As good jobs increasingly
require more education, college is widely seen as
the ticket to personal economic security and to
global competitiveness. And the message has gotten
through: The percentage of students who went on to
college or trade school within a year of high school
climbed from 47% in 1973 to 67% in 2007, Census
data show.
And yet, there's an undercurrent of concern about a
group of students — sometimes called "the forgotten
half," a phrase coined 22 years ago by social
scientists studying at-risk young people — who, for
whatever reason, do not think college is for them.
It's expressed by soul-searching parents such as
Crave, whose son doesn't thrive in the classroom.
It's also expressed increasingly by educators,
economists and policy analysts, who question
whether it's realistic and responsible to push
students into college even if the odds of academic
success seem low.
They're swimming against a powerful tide. A small but growing number of states now require all high-schoolers to take a college entrance exam. Philadelphia's mayor opened an office in City Hall last month to help residents get information about how to attain a college degree. Bill Gates, perhaps the world's most famous college dropout, has poured more than $2 billion into programs and scholarships to help more students complete college.
Again, our president is so on the take from the billionaire boys' club he can't even fathom the reality few jobs even require any education beyond high school.
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