Yes, I think I've written in this forum before that we need to stop assuming that academics is the only (or even surest) road to success. As you say, it should be considered one type of skill among many. We don't consider our kids failures if they don't have musical or acting or tinkering or athletic skills. But we set up academics as an arena where all should succeed. It's counter-productive from many directions. It inevitably waters down the experience for those who are academically inclined and it makes millions of kids feel like failures when they could have had positive experiences in commercial or trade school. And it costs them and their parents so much money and time and agony. Not to mention the tax money that could be spent closer to where most people live. It's difficult to find the culprit in this. But it's clear that the system is spinning out of control. Most of my students, with their diplomas in hand, will only get the kind of jobs their parents were able to get with a high school degree. Employers have clearly said that they view a BA merely as assurance that the applicant can finish a job, can do what he or she is told, and is reliable. But they can demand it as a matter of course because there are so many of them, why gamble on a high school grad? It's a sad story. Steven G. Cameron wrote: >education for all -- replacing it with a pledge to provide further >academic instruction only to those qualified. What's wrong with a trade >--surely not the money -- have you seen what mechanics, plumbers, and >electricians earn?? After all, despite wanting to pitch for the NY >Giants (yeah, they snuck out to SF in the middle of the night) -- no >amount of training nor public financing/promises nor personal effort >would ever enable me to pitch at any level higher than little league. We >need to become more honest and more realistic -- lowering the standards >has been foolish and will instead, in the long term, be destructive -- >counter productive. > >TC, > >/Steve Cameron, NJ > > ------------------------------------------------------------------ To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off, digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html