Not Everyone Needs to Go to College
by Mark Miller
Smart Nation
Stronghold, Princeton University (WP Commons)
America needs some specific reforms to its antiquated educational system that will bring greater satisfaction as well as economic and social opportunity to our children. According to California State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell, “The greatest threat to the state of California’s economy… is not having that well-skilled, well-trained, educated workforce.”
I am appalled by the fact that a high school diploma gives a young adult virtually no occupational advantage in today’s economy. Let me say that again: A high school graduate is no more qualified for basically any position on the market than a current high school student or dropout. Why? What a waste of time and money for students to earn a worthless piece of paper.
What our kids need in addition to critical thinking skills is a personal reason to think critically. “Because the teacher said so” is not the way to encourage the creative and critical thinking necessary for identifying unmet needs in the community and in marketplaces. It rather encourages the opposite! Our young adults will not acheive if they don’t really know what they are achieving for their community through their critical thinking. These kids need to say to themselves “Oh, that’s why I need this!” Our young adults need practical experience and training in whatever field interests them, whether that be medical research, engineering, athletics, landscaping, auto repair, entrepreneurship, merchandising, environmental science, technology, etc. They need to come out of high school with experience in at least one skilled occupation.
As a high school math and science teacher and small business owner, I am constantly asking myself (just as many of my students ask me), “What on Earth are 90% of my students going to use this knowledge for?” Why does a future lawyer or small business owner need to know how to factor a quadratic equation? Arithmetic and statistics, yes, but number theory and relativity? Our current educational system seems to be geared toward producing high-brow academics, professors, and engineers out of everybody who attends high school. It’s an outrage to me that we try to beat down the inherent beauty and creativity that the majority of our students possess so that they can learn a bunch of theory that they will never use.
We need to stop wasting time and money on this traditionalist “beat them with the algebra book” thinking and put students on their toes through apprenticeships. Nearly the entire nation of Switzerland has its students take part in apprenticeships which include all kinds of professions, from handicrafts (baker, hairdresser, mechanic, etc.) to office workers (secretary, accountant, IT specialist, etc.). This way virtually everyone who graduates from secondary education in Switzerland comes out with an employable skill. At the age of 18.
I am simply proposing that we let our high school students out of the four walls of the classroom and put them into apprenticeships as part of the ordinary high school education. On a personal level, the most meaningful experiences I had as a high school and university student were those in which I had a mentor and actively worked on something. I learned geology through a one-on-one relationship with a formally trained member of my community. I learned to play the French horn through the mentorship of two outstanding high school music teachers who gave me pieces to rehearse for musical competitions. I eventually earned a place in an ensemble that toured Europe through the skills I learned from those mentors. I learned research skills through a senior thesis project organized by a particular geology professor at the University of California at Davis, which led me forward to graduate school at Princeton University. I am not really able to recognize how the numerous high school and university courses that I have taken really helped me in any way to survive and prosper. I sincerely think most of my high school experience and much of my university “learning” was a dead waste of my time. I do see clearly, however, what I learned by doing through the mentorship of specific people along my educational path.
A good friend of mine attended a private, prestigious alternative high school in Virginia on a scholarship. Her family’s income was below the poverty line during her time at the school. During the course of this school’s curriculum, all students are required to work as apprentices. My friend chose to work as a server and then as a secretary. This friend of mine is now one of the core members and a doctoral student at a bioinformatics laboratory at San Diego State University. She tells me that during her undergraduate years she held two jobs – guess what kind of jobs they were – as a server and as a secretary. She says those skills and the jobs that came from those got her through the lean times on her way to having a career. I take her case as a prime example of how even a simple restaurant or office apprenticeship can actually work toward enabling a young adult to contribute to the gaping hole that is said to exist in the number of technically skilled workers in the United States. Apprenticeships work.
I propose having all students, upon completion of elementary and middle school, take part in an apprenticeship of their choice. I propose that as much as 50% of a student’s high school hours be spent in apprenticeships rather than in classrooms. Business owners and agency administrators who take apprentices are going to need a financial reason to take on students. I propose actually capping or reducing the number of high school teachers and reallocating these funds toward apprenticeships. These funds should go toward placement of students in community businesses and agencies.
I believe that actual employers in the community will be much more qualified at presenting a real-world relevance to education than a high school teacher is. I believe that university preparation through high school academics will have far greater meaning to students who have participated in apprenticeships.
Most importantly, high school students will recieve diplomas that actually have some economic worth. Not everyone needs to go to college.
Related Wall Street Journal Article – “College: Time to Accept it’s Not for Everyone“
