Is College the Answer?

In the article Plan B: Skip College from the New York Times, Mr. Steinberg writes,

“A small but influential group of economists and educators is pushing another pathway: for some students, no college at all. It’s time, they say, to develop credible alternatives for students unlikely to be successful pursuing a higher degree, or who may not be ready to do so.”

This struck home to me for some reason.

Over the past 30 years, I have seen us telling students that college is the be-all and end-all to everything. We (meaning the education system) has told them that they can’t get anywhere without a college degree. Then we have changed “vocational career centers” to “career and technology centers” which encourage only college bound students to attend. I still wonder who in the world is teaching young people about carpentry, brick masonry, electricity, auto mechanics etc. The need for people with these skills is still out there but people can’t really learn these skills until after they graduate or if they quit school.

Source : http://successfulteaching.blogspot.com