What's Wrong With America's High Schools?

Been trying to keep up on your blog. As usual, well said. We do spend too much time ramming people into the cubby holes we think are right for them, the "Fun Factory" analogy is perfect! Love ya!

Hey! That was a surprise!

I agree with you wholeheartedly.

College is a worthy goal, but there are more and more jobs today that employers require degrees for, but that don't really require degrees in order to perform in a satisfactory way. Many of these careers did not require degrees in years past and people did these jobs competently. In many professions people learned by apprenticeship and internships, an option that I think should be brought back for several professions that currently require degrees.

I'm sure you're aware that for years, one could become a lawyer by apprenticeship, to use one example. Similarly, many fine journalists have no degrees and are no less competent than their degreed colleagues. And then there is the example of one of our best presidents, Harry Truman, our last president without a college degree, who could have run intellectual circles around our present resident of the White House with his Yale degree.

Of course, some professions will always properly require a college degree......a surgeon being the first thing that comes to mind!

Colleges and Universities today also don't distinguish between students right out of high school and older students who are on a strictly career-driven path. A certain number of courses, that are not in any direct way related to the career a student is preparing for, are required in order to graduate, because they tend to "round out" a student's education. I'm guessing that a 40 year old student has quite a few life experiences that an 18 year old student doesn't have, and that such life experiences have "rounded them out" quite sufficiently. However, most univsersities don't distinguish between the 18 year old and the 40 year old student, and they require these classes of everyone, willy nilly. As a forty year old student has 22 years less of their lives ahead of them than the 18 year old student does, such non essential classes are wasting their time. Colleges need to offer fast track degree programs that cut out all the nonessentials for those who are there simply to advance on their jobs.

Damn, I really got on a soap box with this one. I may end up using my comment here as a blog entry of its own. Thanks for inspiring me to write it.

It's ridiculous, the way everyone's latched onto the idea of college degrees being necessary. My DH has no degree, but he has his own company. He's much in demand for services other companies would require him to have a degree to do. The stupid thing is, it's highly technological (digital imaging) and there isn't a school out there that can afford the state-of-the-art equipment he uses, so a degree would be outdated before he even graduated.

Ummm Mella thinks...Mella thinks...Mella isnt sure really. Mella agrees completely with Paula, but Mella agrees that school isnt the only thing that will give an education.

Mella wants to ask Paula, dear Paula am I above average? Then Mella would respond to her that it was Eric who forced and crammed my brain with education and helped me surpass my standards at early ages where my brain was still not developed.

Then Mella would tell you that Erics main goal ever since I was a baby was to work me into becoming the next owner of Hell inc, his secret plan all along.

Then Mella would conclude, and restate her thesis that kids need foundations other than highschool or college which to me, is really limitations than expanding. This is why Mella insists on giving Mikey some kind of foundation with a real-life and fun twist to it, so he dont have to stress, but can learn and benefit from it. :) (sorry for Mellas third personness Lol).

Paula forgives Mella. Further, Paula thinks Mella's had a heck of a lot of life experience crammed in early. So has W, for that matter.

It really is strange how everyone is pushed towards the college path, irregardless of their abilities and talents. We get a lot of students at our college who aren't particularly good students but who have talents in non-traditional college subjects. I really like that the faculty gear the curriculum to make it relevent to the working world, English papers involving writing a newsletter, or a job proposal for example, over some topic in which the student has no interest or use for after graduation. Sure it is great to be well-rounded, but many people just want to be employable. There needs to be more available for them. I'd like to see the trades busted open too. You just about have to be a family member to get a plumbing license anymore, at least around here, and they make damn good money!

I agree with you wholeheartedly. My own path of education started with dropping out in grade eleven and working construction and then in an oil refinery and finally in the Armed Services. I was lucky and managed to get a BA while I was in the service. It takes some people some time to find their path in life, and life itself is the best education. What ever doesn't kill you makes you stronger. JWL

First of all, thanks for the shout out. I really appreciate it. There is so much I want to communicate, yet my thoughts keep being pulled back to New Orleans. If I didn't have one still in HS, I fear I would have moved there by now.

Speaking of which... my oldest and my youngest have attended an "alternative" high school, which takes essentially the same attitude you espouse in this very insightful post. At this high school, the overall philosophy is to get each kid through with the least damage (really) based on their individual strengths and weaknesses. It is a work-study program and every student there has at least one job. It is expensive, but we've been lucky. When the oldest went there we could afford it, and by the time I was too poor to keep the youngest there, they loved us so much (sweat equity) that they scholarshiped him "until he graduates" (so he'll be going an extra year for APs and test prep - heh heh).

The fact is that everything is a spectrum. Our eye color, skin color, size, personality, apptitude, the ways in which we each learn. Most schools, to manage costs and stick to curricula (established essentially by the publishing houses that produce the texts), try to make a one-size-fits-all solution for an infinitely variable problem.

The fact is that some of those who make the worst (sit in your chairs for an hour at a time and change classes quickly when the bell rings) students, end up making the best entrepreneurs (if they don't sustain too much damage in the early years of schooling/Play-Dough-Molding).

Excellent post, Paula. I couldn't agree with you more.

I know what you mean, Sophmom. Most of the time, while my at-risk kiddos struggled at school, their employers absolutely loved them! Real entrepreneurs often don't do well with authority and regimen. They're outside-the-box kids, and we need those kinds of people!