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College is overrated
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I can relate to this argument yesterday by Karen DeCoster, who explains why college is hardly "necessarily" and why it most certainly is not a requirement for everyone.
Artificial demand for college degrees, driven largely by state- and federally-subsidized loans along with public school teachers' entreaties to children everywhere to pursue education after high school, has resulted in skyrocketing tuition, too many colleges and students, and too much student debt -- which often culminates in loan defaults when an oversupply of graduates can't find jobs in a tight market.
Karen's spot-on analysis primarily makes me happy because it serves to vindicate some of the teachings I would share with former elementary school students back in the mid to late '90s, when I knew I had strong libertarian leanings but well before I was versed in the teachings of LewRockwell.com, Austrian economics, and libertarianism.
As many readers probably know by now, I once taught fourth grade in a public school, which was located in a low-income, inner city-type area and populated primarily with minority students. It epitomized single parenthood, broken families, and all the other perks that often tend to accompany widespread crime, drug use, and welfare subsidies. To say that the majority of students faced uphill battles to overcome problems in their home lives and communities would be an understatement, and any honest teacher knew that many of them would be lucky to graduate from high school, much less go on to have successful college careers.
I may have been a mere college graduate myself, but I would've had to have been an idiot to tell 10-year-old kids, many of whom were certifiably illiterate, that they "needed" to go to college to be successful. Inasmuch as discussions of the sort even need to take place in an elementary school classroom, it would have been borderline criminal to fill these kids' heads with such a notion when half of them hardly even wanted to be in school in the first place.
However, looking back I highly doubt many of the other teachers in my school shared my views. It was virtually common knowledge that kids were simply expected to go to college, and I'm almost certain that the principal would have written me up if I was ever caught "demoralizing" the students or "discouraging" them from "taking ownership for their education," or whatever the lofty mantra was for the year. Admittedly, I've tried hard to forget about many of the politically correct policies I was expected to swallow and regurgitate for my students back then.
Of course, I did (and do) believe that every student is responsible for his own education, and that anyone can accomplish just about anything he puts his mind to if he's willing to make the sacrifices necessary for success. When talk of college came up in my classroom, I was quick to point out that every single kid in the room was capable of getting good grades, going on to college, and getting almost anything he or she wanted in life. I most certainly did not discourage my students from aspiring to academia after high school. However, I did make it perfectly clear that they did not "need" to go to college to be successful.
What I told them was that they, in fact, would need to learn how to read, to write, to learn how to multiply and divide accurately, to think logically, to speak in coherent sentences, to respect others, and to understand that they were the only ones who could determine whether they would be successful or not.
Though the school had a 70 percent minority enrollment, there was no black, brown, or white in my classroom; aside from only a handful of "normal" students, the vast majority comprised a technicolor array of kids who were growing up on the wrong side of the tracks and needed all the proper guidance adults could provide them. I told them that the world was full of plumbers and construction workers and electricians and hair stylists and UPS drivers who probably all made more money than their humble teacher; that anyone who employed the aforementioned skills could open up her own business and learn how to do her own accounting or inventory management or interviews for new employees. But more importantly, I told them that anyone who had a decent academic skill set could find employment just about anywhere.
So thanks, Karen, for making me realize that even when I hardly knew anything, I at least knew enough not to force my students to flounder in the self-righteous ramblings of their government schools.
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