Teacher Bashing

I agree that today having a college degree is important in many ways, for one, many jobs are not even accessible without a college degree. However, I think in HS and in college we do a very poor job of career counseling as many students think because they are "smart" or get a college degree then they are golden. What they do not seem to understand is that education alone does not success make. I am certainly not "knocking" liberal arts education as I have two liberal arts degrees, however I think we really need to knock down the perception that just because you go to college that you are going to be highly successful

A new study just released by Harvard indicates that too many students are going to college and not being successful in doing so, (1) do not learn much while in school (2) do not graduate or take 5-6 years to do so (3) graduate and cannot find jobs within a reasonable amount of time( due to glut of applicants in their field, generally liberal arts, and lack of any transferable work skills).

Another study indicated that a growing trend is to not hire newly graduated college students if an older more experienced applicant is available. Why? Because "many" newly matriculated workers are " unreliable", "not professional in appearance/ work behavior" and have "unrealistic" expectations regarding pay/benefits starting out. Granted this is a generalization, but it is a growing trend.

I am not advocating NOT going to college. I teach at the college level and have one daughter in college and we have told BOTH of our children since first grade they would go to college. We realize it is an opportunity for them. However, not everyone should go to 4 year college because that is what society expects from them. ALL should either go to 4 year college, 2 year program or some type of techincal/vocational/trade school which will enhance their earning potential and meet the "school" requirement we seem to have anymore.

But it seems to me to be a successfully economic and labor orientated society we need a "healthy" mix of those who are considered academics and those who are skilled labor , self employed and other professions which do not require college degrees and have the technical skills and know how to keep our country running and these folks should be well compensated and not penalized because they didnt sit in college classrooms and attend fraternity parties for 4-6 years.

We really really need to do a better job with helping young adults determine a career path and not "disenfranchise" ( like that lofty academic word?) or look down on young adults who want to pursue worthy careers that do not include high scores on SAT/ACT tests.

I am reading Millionaire Mind by Thomas Stanley and it is interesting to note that of the 900+ interviewed for the book, only a handful scored really well on SAT and did very well in college and those were lawyers and doctors. The remaining were "average" students and some were even below average and not even considered college material and some were even college dropouts who went on to become multimillionaires. For the most part it had very very little to do with intelligence or academic success and very much to do with playing up to individual strengths, incredible work ethic, strong love of chosen profession and an almost obsessive desire to get ahead. These are probably the most valuable lessons that we could pass along to our emerging young adults. And sadly, it is generally not being taught in college classrooms.

Really ? Do they really do that? even if they do wouldn't that statistic be skewed from their prior hiring practices?

Or could it simply be that since they have a degree they know what goes into getting it and they are comfortable hiring people with the same background?
Ever notice that when you go into a business often all the help has a similar look but when you ask if its a family place they laugh?
Its human nature to like and trust those that look and have similar backgrounds to you.

Yes, they really do that. It's their job, and its not as easy as people may think.

Keep in mind that in large corporations there are employees from all walks of life working a myraid of jobs from mail clerk all the way up the food chain. Its not like they're only hiring for the IT dept or only for the secretary job. They should have fairly representative data to work with.

It works the other way too. People with degrees have a hard time getting hired for what HR considers "menial" jobs.....so as desperate as someone may be to work and put food on the table for their family, if they have a college degree they probably aren't going to get hired to be the janitor. Because the HR rep knows that statistically people with college degrees are only taking this job as a bridge until they can find a job with a higher salary that more closely matches their education and job history.

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Blue moon What about that other group? Those that have years of experiance? Where do they fit in?