Wednesday, February 2, 2011

College Not For All

A new Harvard study (PDF) says American students need to begin to decide in middle school whether they want to prepare for four-year college and then a career. The alternative approach, the study says, is to begin vocational training for a job earlier.

The study is inspired by European systems of education, and its authors say too many students are graduating high school without middle-level skills that could help them land well-paying jobs as electricians, for example. About a third of jobs in the next decade won't require a four-year college education, the study says, and this program would help American kids prepare for them.

This is not surprising to anyone on the front lines of education - yet it is completely lost on all the reformers who get the press. The Obama Administration and their narrow-minded - altogether clueless - minions continue to push college for all to the exclusion of real discussion of practical education.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Bring back apprenticeships.

Anonymous said...

Agreed that not all should go to college. However, middle school is much, much too early to have to decide. I had no idea what I wanted to do when I was in middle school.

mmazenko said...

They shouldn't decide - but they should certainly be thinking about whether they are academic or not by middle school.