[lit-ideas] Re: Sunday waffle...
- From: Ursula Stange <Ursula@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 01 Jun 2005 14:37:57 -0400
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
Other related posts:
