An AP headline asks, Obama’s call of college for all: Could it be done?
Forget “could it be done?” and ask first “should it be done?”
As a college professor, I am obviously rather pro-college education, and while I would like to see all who are willing and capable attain that goal, the bottom line is that not only is not every single person capable of getting through college (as the story notes, a lot of people drop out of High School), a lot of people aren’t interested. Indeed, I have seen plenty of both in my years of teaching, usually in general studies classes. There are a lot of students out there who don’t have the requisite skills to be successful in college and a lot who do have no idea why they are there, and therefore do not do very well.
Indeed, given the state of K-12, I am not sure that we oughn’t be focusing our attention there before trying to achieve universality at the collegiate level.
February 28th, 2024 at 11:09 pm
I’m glad to see this. I think we have too many people in college right now. If you are motivated (as I was), and need the education for your line of work (as did I), then college is great! Even if you aren’t 100% sure, but know you want to spend 4 years engaging in the “life of the mind”, again, go for it! But if you don’t have a clue, and would rather do a job that doesn’t require college, then why go? I have a good friend who has been working for a year, is making decent money, and who is about to get married, and all without a college degree – he’s always wanted to work in repairing stuff, and got a job doing that. He’s far happier (and has much more direction) then those who go to college because it was what they were supposed to do.