9486 in the collection
College Is Not a Must
Mandated college-prep classes
inhibit high-schoolers' futures, and the total
damage inflicted on students by the college-is-
for-everyone mentality is incalculable.
By Walt Gardner
LOS ANGELES - Fall classes are barely under way
and already guidance counselors across the
country are conferring with students about the
courses they need for their high school
diplomas. In the process, more than 90 percent
will be steered toward a college-prep
curriculum, according to the Alfred P. Sloan
Study of Youth and Social Development. This,
however, is not as laudable as it seems.
The reasons serve as a cautionary tale that the
US ignores at its peril. Despite what the
public is willing to acknowledge, the
importance of a bachelor's degree has been
wildly oversold. In 2007, for example, about 67
percent of high school graduates went directly
to college, compared with just under half in
1972.
The usual argument put forth in defense of a
four-year degree is that it contains a decided
wage premium. Studies have consistently found
that those who have a degree on average earn
more than those who don't. . But all these
studies were conducted before the new global
economy fully emerged. Its presence calls into
question long-held assumptions.
If Alan Blinder, former vice chairman of the
Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve
System, is correct, the only jobs that will be
secure in the next decade will those that
cannot be sent abroad electronically. That
means plumbers, electricians, and auto
mechanics, for example, will be working
steadily while many of their degreed classmates
will be collecting unemployment checks.
Moreover, since wages vary within any
occupation, degree holders who are still
employed will not necessarily be earning top
salaries. The same holds true for non-degree-
holders, of course, but at least they will be
in far greater demand because their skills
cannot be offshored. As a result, they will be
in a position to command wages at the top of
their respective brackets.
The Wall Street Journal reported last
month that some unionized craft workers already
earn more than the average college graduate –
and do so without carrying the heavy burden of
student debt. The demand for this skilled labor
is expected to intensify in the coming years as
more workers retire and the economy revives.
All of the preceding assumes, of course, that
students in high school actually receive their
diplomas. In order to earn them, however,
students in many states have no choice but to
take a rigidly prescribed sequence of courses
that too often are not in line with their needs
and interests. At the top of the list is the
growing requisite of Algebra 1.
California is experiencing the harm done by
this requirement. At present, just more than
half of the state's eighth-graders are taking
Algebra 1 as part of the new policy mandating
the course for all within three years.
Yet already, the requirement has singularly
resulted in an increase in the dropout rate
beyond the 24.2 percent in the 2006-07 school
year. Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack
O'Connell has warned that the requirement sets
every school in the state up for failure.
For schools serving large numbers of poor and
minority students, the results are expected to
be disproportionately felt. That's because
career and technical education, which has
proved instrumental in the past in boosting
graduation rates for these students, will lose
more funding to accommodate the Algebra 1
mandate.
Even if the funding were somehow to
materialize, however, tens of thousands of
students will not be allowed to enroll in
vocational electives in middle school if they
haven't mastered Algebra 1. This unintended
consequence has become so threatening that the
presidents of the California Manufacturers and
Technology Association and the State Building
and Construction Trades have jointly denounced
the requirement.
The total damage inflicted on students by the
college-is-for-everyone mentality is
incalculable. Students who cannot measure up to
the demands for a college curriculum are made
to feel like failures.
Our competitors abroad have long understood and
accepted the fact that students can have a
productive and gratifying career even when they
do not go on to some form of tertiary
education. They grant equal respect to these
students, rather than regard them as second-
class.
But their realistic attitude goes against the
romantic notion that unfortunately prevails in
this country. What Americans ultimately need to
learn is that college is merely the most
convenient place to learn how to learn. It is
not an absolute determinant.
Walt Gardner taught for 28 years in the Los
Angeles Unified School District and was a
lecturer in the UCLA Graduate School of
Education.
— Walt Gardner
Christian Science Monitor
2008-09-03
INDEX OF OUTRAGES
Pages: 380
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