Miseducation: A Criticism of High School and Higher Education
Written by John Rozewicki   
Tuesday, 21 February 2006
The most common complaint that I hear from incoming university freshman is that they don't understand how the things they're doing in their classes are useful. Because they can't immediately apply it to their daily lives they think it must be worthless. It's not. In fact, it's the most important part of education and even though they don't realize, it can be applied at every level of their lives. If they wanted job training then they should have gone to a 2-year technical school or gotten an apprenticeship. University does not directly prepare you for the future. It may give you a few specific skills that you can use later, but for the most part it isn't like becoming a mechanic or plumber who goes through an apprenticeship program.

Flexible Workers

The simple reason that people with a degree have more options is that they are better-rounded candidates. Employers won't have to spend time training them. They will be able to learn things on their own, and won't be a burden on the company. They also won't be useless if there is a major shift in how the actual business is done. They tend to be more reliable in the long term, and thus, tend to get paid more in the end. You do not need a degree to be a factory worker. When steel mills go out of business, the people who used to work there have a very tough time entering other fields. One of the biggest problems with people working in factories is that they are not as adaptable. This is not to say that factory workers can't be intelligent, or that they can't learn new things. They can, and they should. But we all know what kinds of holy hell are raised when people get laid off from very rote jobs like factories. University graduates tend not to have as much trouble with being laid off from a job and getting a new one, because they have been trained in learning. This is the role of universities.

Training for the Future

Undergraduate work is designed to teach you how to think. The process is what's important. The information is a part of it, but you will remember very little. Doing all of this work, with the information you later won't remember, will prepare you for every job you will ever have. It will prepare you for life. It's all an exercise. The first part is gathering the information and learning how to evaluate it. The second part is applying it and making new concepts. Math problems are this way. Do you remember every math problem you've ever done? Do you complain about not ever needing to know the answer to 23 plus 64? No. You understand that it's a process. You understand that knowing how to add the two numbers is much more powerful than memorizing the answers will ever be. But knowing it's about the process does not make it any easier. It still takes practice and training. Graduate school or college is really where people are trained for specific fields. Completing an undergraduate degree means that you have developed the skills to learn what you really need to learn. Graduate schools, in this regard, have a lot in common with 2-year training programs. However, graduate schools usually cater to more mentally demanding jobs. Many jobs can be trained for in 2 years. I give a lot of credit to people who go through those programs. 2 years is an incredibly short amount of time, and they come out of it with useful skills that can give them a sufficient living. Academics is not for everyone, and grades are not everything. People who get low grades in high school aren't doomed when it comes to employment. They can enter a 2-year program, and carve themselves a pretty nice life doing essential jobs that will never stop being needed. I consider that to be a smart, informed decision. The smartest person is the person who realizes exactly how much, and what they need to do to be happy, and then does it. Why don't we value and appreciate that?

The Push for Higher Education

In our culture we value going to university after high school. As such, a bunch of high schools masquerading as higher education have popped up. Usually called junior colleges or community colleges, they take in the segment of the population that didn't do very well in high school. They convince people that academics are the way to go even for the people who aren't really good at it. If academics was their thing then they would have gotten better grades, and gone to a decent university. There are always exceptions, but for the most part this is what goes on. University is not a requirement for making a lot of money. The people going to junior colleges are missing the point of such an education by a long shot. People hide behind the money issue in defense of junior colleges. They say they can't get scholarships, or that they don't want to put themselves in debt. University is an investment. You're asking people to invest in your future, and you are investing in yourself. If they are using money as an excuse then they have very very low self confidence. It stems from not thinking they'll be able to get a job after they get their degree. So when they say they don't want go in to debt, what they're really saying is that they don't think they're good enough. There isn't any better reason to go in to debt. If they don't think they'll be able to get a job after getting a decent education at a university then what makes them think they'll get any job after getting a sub-par education at a junior college? Junior college is a safe bet. It's less work than university because the education is not as good. They don't have the budget to pay teachers an adequate wage. You get what you pay for. We understand it in every other arena except education. Junior college is a safe bet because you spend less money and still get to buy a few years of doing nothing by saying you're going to school. If you did that badly in high school then you should get your ass to a training program or focused college to learn a skill.

The Role of High School

Not enough is taught in high school about choosing a path that's right on a per-person basis. Even as a university student I can understand that academics is not the right way to go for a lot of people. The people getting the bad grades need to be pulled aside and put on a better, more realistic, path. They need to be shown that there are a lot of other options out there besides going to college. There are industries that need people all the time. Hell, join the military if you're just out of high school and have zero direction. One of the best things you can do is join the military. It's free. No, wait, they pay you! We need to start respecting the people doing something with their lives, and stop acting like university is the answer to everything. I feel sorry for all those people sitting in the junior colleges who think they are getting the same shot as the people going to university. It's unfair to them to try and give them something that is nearly impossible to deliver. It's preying on the poor. They say they have no money, and so they go to junior college. Most people just drop out and never finish. The very few who go on to do something transfer to a university. These junior colleges convince people they're as good as a university for less money. Then they take money from people who say they already have money problems in exchange for something they can't deliver. It's disingenuous High schools should be preparing people for the real world. Instead they're preparing everyone, whether they like it or not, for universities. The percentage that doesn't go gets lost for almost the entirety of their twenties because they have no idea of the options that are realistically available to them. This is why junior colleges have flourished. We're taught very early that we must go to college if we want to be successful in life. That simply isn't true, and is heavily dependent on your idea of success. Monetarily, most people can be just fine not going to college. We're pushed in this college direction, and then the group that can't hack it with academics goes to the warehouse that is junior college. They get lost for a few years, and finally give up. High schools are so focused on colleges and universities that they do not teach Real Life 101. They don't teach you about how to manage your finances. They don't teach you what interest rates are, and which ones are realistic. People come out of high school knowing very little about how the world works and what they need to be doing. There's a career planning course in every high school. It should be a required course for everyone, and proper weight should be given to it. Career planning in most high schools is a compulsory do-nothing class for people who want to take it easy.

Expect More

Nobody seems to be focused on actually educating and preparing for the world. It's talked about non-stop at the high school level. It's hard to find something that we talk about more, that also, isn't being done. Parents need to be expecting more from their child's high school, and not just accept the lip service that's given. Guidance counselors need to step up, and teachers need to also. Students interact with their teachers every single day. That is an opportunity to teach something that I think is being missed. Those high school students who complain that they will not use what they're being taught are right in a certain sense. The university students are very very wrong, but the high schoolers are right.
Trackback(0)
Comments (0)add comment

Write comment
password
 

busy
 
< Prev