High school education is obsolete

[army_paralegal]

http://www.detnews.com/2005/ed ­itorial/0506/26/A15-227745.htm


Sunday, June 26, 2005


Stop the party: High school graduation means nothing


By Nolan Finley / The Detroit News


June is waning, and with it the high school graduation celebrations.
The tassels are flipped; the hats tossed in the air. And soon, the
last of the champagne corks will pop.


Big stinking deal. High school graduation is an archaic ceremony that
carries no significance today. It ought to be scrapped.


Parents are wed to the notion that graduation day marks a rite of
passage into the adult world; that their children have secured a
foothold on the future.


So they snap a few last school pictures to tape on the refrigerator
door, throw parties and shake down about everyone they know for a
check.


But if high school graduation is the last education milestone young
Johnny and Jill mark, then write them off as failures, or more
charitably, as having a high probability of leading a marginal life.


Despite what the local windbag said in that windy commencement speech,
finishing the 12th grade is no more significant than finishing the
10th, or the fourth, or the first. It's just one more year in an
education career that has to extend well beyond the senior year of
high school.


Abe Stokla, this year's valedictorian at Eagleville High School, had
his diploma yanked for saying in his speech: "You have given us the
minimum required attention and education to master any station at any
McDonald's anywhere."


But the kid was telling the truth. High school isn't preparation for a
single career. It's certainly no finish line.


The best a high school graduate can hope for today is to start work in
a menial, low-paying position and hope that on-the-job training will
help him or her move up the economic ladder.


But the odds are the climb will be limited. Over the course of a
lifetime, a college graduate will earn $1 million more on average than
a high school graduate.


And don't bother me with a nonsensical recitation of all the people
who excelled in life without a college degree. That list inevitably
starts with Bill Gates, the Microsoft founder and America's richest
dropout.


Take an honest look at that kid of yours who isn't interested in
college. Is he or she really Bill Gates material? Will they even get
the opportunity to drop out of Harvard, as Gates did?


If the traditional, four-year college track isn't in their stars,
they'd better at least be looking at a two-year community college
program, or some other technical or trade school training.


We'd serve our children better if we stopped thinking about education
as K-12, and started talking in terms of K-14 or K-16.


High school should be a staging ground to direct all students into the
next phase of education, and to begin steering them toward careers.


It might be best if we stopped handing out high school diplomas,
stopped even recognizing graduation day. That would deliver the
message that nothing's finished yet.


Hold the applause. Save the speeches and the checks. Keep the
champagne on ice.


Let the celebration begin when there's truly something to celebrate.


Nolan Finley is editorial page editor of The News. Reach him at (313)
222-2064 or nfin...@detnews.com


© 2005 Detroit News

 

[48Highlander]

Bullshit.  You know, I think highschools emphasize college/university educations WAY too much these days.  I had NO idea what I wanted to after highschool, but because I showed a lot of "intelligence", my councilors automaticaly assumed I'd be going to university and tried to prepare me for it.  Meanwhile my best friend took automechanics starting in grade 9, dropped out after finishing grade 11, and was working in a garage within a couple years making $30 an hour doing his dream job.  I would have been more than happy to go into a trade as an electrician or mechanic; the one thing I DIDN'T want to do was go to university.  And I still haven't.  There are many other opportunities available.  Having a college or university diploma is neccesary for some careers, but absolutely pointless for most trades.

 

[Thompson_JM]

Perhaps it may be better for the high schools to show all the options available to students then.. ie Trades as well as post secondary education.

 

[Glorified Ape]

  Having a college or university diploma is neccesary for some careers, but absolutely pointless for most trades.

If by college you include the colleges teaching electrician and mechanics courses, then I'd have to disagree with you. Any half-way decent job these days - trade or profession - is likely going to require some amount of education. I know my buddies going into tool & die, automechanics, etc. couldn't get squat without a college diploma in their field.

On the topic of the article, I think the guy's suggestion that HS grad be scrapped is stupefyingly idiotic. Whether he likes to admit it or not, the end of HS IS a milestone, and a pretty important one at that. No, it's not the end, but saying it should be disregarded because many continue on to post-secondary education is like saying we shouldn't give parades to BOTC/BMQ grads because they've still got their trade training to do. What sense does that make?

 

[axeman]

i was one of those guys 48th highlander is talking about .. by the time i was 24 i had a wack of life experiance and was kind of ready to start to think about long term goals in my life .ihad an appernticeship with 3yrs down one yr away from journyman status  . i know friends that by 35 were just finishing up with their schooling and "appenticeship" for lack of a better term and now are just starting to be able to think about life goals . me ive a few years left then can retire .[if i want to ]
these friends still have a wack of student loans to pay off before they can start to think about a house loan .. sure it may be nice to have a BA MA PHD. but i have a CD and a few years left. i was speaking to mark one of my friewnds like this and right now he still doesnt know if hes made the right choices for a careerr. wow man youve got to decide to sit or get off the pot ..
CPL Thompson you are right they shouls show you whats out there not handle you into the job they think is right for you .ever seen office space  when they are talking about job future in hight school ? wel thats the way it is

 

[camochick]

Highschools place way too much emphasis on post secondary education immediately preceding high school. It's crap. What 18 year old really knows what they want to do with the rest of their lives. I'm sure some do and going to post secondary right after high school is great for them but what about the other 80 percent of the kids graduating.
    I went to university, I went to college, then i realize that I didn't really want to be in either one of those places. I'm a waitress now and happier than ever. I realize i will want to something more in my future but for right now i am loving what i do and learning something new everyday. Before i graduated highschool all anyone kept saying was, so what university are you going to. More than half of the people I know who went to university right out of highschool dropped out.
  I agree that more emphasis should be placed on trade schools. I live in Alberta right now and getting a trade is the best thing you can do with the amount of skilled trades people they need. But post secondary isn't the end all be all that everyone likes to think it is, I much prefer the school of life.

 

[Julio]

While I agree that a 18 y.o. might not exactly know what he wants to do in life, it is one reason there can't be enough emphasis or guidance on post-sec. education or trades for that matter.

1) A baccalaureate in a specific field will open many doors, even unrelated to the degree. It shows accomplishments, that you can achieve goals, that you can put the required effort to do so, ...  School of life is great, but doesn't mean much to the human ressources: If 100 people want to be a X and there are only 2 X positions, they might use education as a mean to filter candidates.

2) Eric has only a High school diploma and got a job @ 25K$/yr.
    John keeps going to uni for 4 years.

    After 4 years Eric has 100k$

    John starts working at 50K$ first year, 55K$ second year, 60 K$ third year and 65K$ fourth year.

8 years after High school: Eric earned 200K$
                                  John earned 230K$ - 30K$ uni loan = 200K$

After 8 years, both have same net worth, but John has an edge and will really start to make much more money than Eric in the future.

--
Of course it is only a very simple illustration, but the trend is always the same. Think of education as an investment!

3) With the globalisation of the economy that is closing on us, it will put all the world's uneducated/unskilled workforce in a global labor pool where the salary will be of the lowest bidder.  Think about the wages in China, ..., that will be competing with you in that pool...  It has already started with the mobilisation of industries.  Will there be a mobilisation of  workers too?

My .02$

 

[48Highlander]

You want real educations, you'll need to change the school system.   Our schools focus on spoonfeeding information and forcing memorization.   That might have been fine at the beggining of the industrialization era, however, these days it's insufficient and unneccesary.   With the advent of the internet, memorization of mundane fiacts and details becomes unneccesary - instead, schools need to focus more on research methods and the verification of information.   The biggest change that needs to happen though is that schools need to start teaching people to think for themselves instead of memorizing what they're told and then vomiting it out verbatum on a test paper.   When I worked in the IT industry I was fresh out of highschool, and all those around me had university diplomas.   Yet any time a new piece of software came out, they'd need to do a course in order to familiarize themselves with it.   Meanwhile, in the same amount of time I could sit down at the computer, learn the new software, and then teach myself a programming language or two if I had nbothing better to do.   That's the main problem I had with going to a "place of higher learning";   I could learn the same material by myself in a shorter ammount of time at a fraction of the cost.   The only drawback is that I don't get a little piece of paper which tells future employers that I'm a trainable monkey.

 

[mainerjohnthomas]

High school education is not obsolete, nor is it an end point.  High school is the last the state will pay for, and marks the entry level for the productive citizen.  You can work without a diploma, but odds are, not for very much (some do but some win the lottery too; don't bet on odds that long).  With a diploma, you can then proceed with your own life choices as an adult; post secondary school, trade-school, apprenticeships, military service, or entry level employment in a field of interest (or opportunity).  By the time you graduate, you have already tailored your last years of education towards a life goal (or you missed the chance, life is like that).  I am very hesitant to tailor high school any earlier than grade ten, as I am reluctant to force young people to spend the rest of their lives paying for choices made when they were fifteen (there may be wise fifteen year olds out there, there may also be unicorns, I have met neither).  Highschool must balance early preparation of the students for their desired post-secondary goals, and preparing them for life OUTSIDE that narrow field.  Take a real good look at your yearbook some time, and tell me how many people's lives and careers followed the course they had charted at eighteen.  As an aside, I found my highschool education more relevant than many of the non-core requirements of my BSc program at UBC.  Paying good money to satisfy an 18th century requirement to produce "well rounded gentlemen", when BA students labour under no similar(and expensive)  requirement to be scientifically literate, still ticks me off.

 

[Mappy]

I'm currently in my last year of undergrad and I am seeing firsthand the effect of parents/teachers pushing all students to go to university/college.  There are way too many students in the post-secondary system (esp. university) that SHOULD NOT be here.  Yes, everyone has a right to get higher education, however some students are here because mommy and daddy told them to go to university, here because trades seem to have been devalued by society, or here because they have no clue on what they want to do with the rest of their lives.  Being in university nowadays seems to becoming "highschool part II". 

Being a TA in university, I'm also seeing students come into the system continuesly whining about everything from too much reading, assignments, TAs/Profs being "mean", or even the "If I dont get an A its the teachers fault".  I even see students come into first year not knowing how to write properly.  Also, if you dont spoonfeed every little piece of information to them via written and verbal instructions, they cannot figure it out for themselves.  This is not all students, Ive seen some great students come into the university throughout the year, however university is not what it used to be. 

Before, students who came to university WANTED to learn, and university was hard.  Now students who want to learn are now starting to overload the professional/graduate system.  In my undergrad program (Geography - Geographic information systems) where the class sizes have dramatically increased over the past few years, Profs are finding hard to give us hands on experience in our program because we dont have enough equiptment to go around, which affects the job search because we dont get experience, which forces the "have to get more schooling" idea onto us.

I graduate in a year, and I'm starting to look at the next course of education action for me.  I feel like I'm in the last year of high school again.....

 

[aesop081]

Being a TA in university, I'm also seeing students come into the system continuesly whining about everything from too much reading, assignments, TAs/Profs being "mean", or even the "If I dont get an A its the teachers fault".  

Probably the same people who come in here whining about having failed the CFAT ( and its content) and that recruiters are trying to screw them.

 

[brin11]

While the author of the article goes way too far I do agree that the ceremonies attached to high school graduation have gotten a bit out of hand.  Some parents/children spend hundreds and hundreds of dollars on gowns, suits, rental cars, parties, etc.  I think its a bit over the top for something that most people accomplish.  I also agree that the value of a high school diploma has decreased greatly in the last few generations.  I didn't attend my high school graduation even though I received an award; I was working that day.  I didn't feel that I wanted to be a part of the extravangance for something that held little meaning for me.

 

[Mappy]

Some parents/children spend hundreds and hundreds of dollars on gowns, suits, rental cars, parties, etc.

There were some girls at my prom that literally wore dyed wedding gowns.  A girl at my work spent roughly $1000 on prom this year.....and she was just the date.

 

[RossF]

Abe Stokla, this year's valedictorian at Eagleville High School, had
his diploma yanked for saying in his speech: "You have given us the
minimum required attention and education to master any station at any
McDonald's anywhere."

That is great.

 

[Lexi]

Perhaps it may be better for the high schools to show all the options available to students then.. ie Trades as well as post secondary education.

They do - the OYAP program. (Ontario Youth Apprenticeship Program.) Basically it takes grade 11 students and puts them head-first into a tradework environment where they're taught everything they need to know. The options go from Auto Mechanic to Pastry Chef. 

 

[Lexi]

And I thought my $300+ was bad.

Another reason why I don't intend on going to proms, bloody beauty competition...

 

[Sh0rtbUs]

My prom was 2 weeks ago, and i never went for that very reason. Like I told my English teacher, why spend so much money on some fancy banquet, the clothing and date fees which come with the package, where i could buy a 24 of kieths, a 26'er of JD and hang out with friends, all the while only spending my ENTRANCE FEE, and having 10 times more fun.

 

[Mappy]

I wish I never went to my prom.  I could have gone on some sort of trip with the money I spent on prom (the ticket alone was $85).  I liked the getting dressed up part (I was into the sports and rarely ventured out of pants) and the pre-party with all the pictures.  But after dinner was served, I was bored!

 

[nawk]

I think that employers are the ones constantly pushing for the up and coming workers to get higher education.  Before it was almost a requirement to get a job to have a high school diploma.  Nowdays it is a university degree.  However an undergrad degree is expected as some basic prerequisite.  It is expected that you have even more credentials like a masters to get that job that you want.  Really what can a graduate with a BA do.  There are so many people with BA's now that you need even more degrees to beef up your resume.  And just getting a higher degree does not mean you are necessarily better for that job but that's what employers look for.

 

[DJ]

As an aside, I found my highschool education more relevant than many of the non-core requirements of my BSc program at UBC.  Paying good money to satisfy an 18th century requirement to produce "well rounded gentlemen", when BA students labour under no similar(and expensive)  requirement to be scientifically literate, still ticks me off.

Whoa.  I just had to comment.  Where are you going with this?  Is this about the English requirement?  One, or maybe two, English courses aren't that much of a burden.  Everybody has to know how to communicate, (and many people, uni grads and non uni grads, don't know how to do this).  I'm not familiar with the BSc program but BA students DO have similar requirements to take a minimum number of science credits to graduate.  While some try to get the most arts-like science courses, I'm sure that not every science student is taking Shakespeare.  And I was under the impression that science creds were on par cost-wise with arts.  It's engineering, commerce, pharmacy and other professional programs that have the differential tuition.  I will admit though, the textbook situation is not in your favour. 


DJ