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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]What about those of us worried if our child is going to graduate hs?

So frustrating to watch her chance at college just slipping away [/quote]

HS is important, but college is not necessarily the right path for every child, especially ones that are not quite as good at "book learning".  For some people, hands on training is better for them than academic learning.  There are plenty of jobs where you can get non-college training to get very good careers that will be much more advantageous than college.

Personally I think that over the last few decades that we've done a number of young adults a disservice. We have spent so much time focusing on college being the pathway to careers and better lives that we've stopped paying attention to what is best for the individual.  Instead, we've graduated multiple classes of college educated graduates who have degrees in fields that are now oversubscribed with graduates and there aren't enough jobs in the given industry for all of them.  So, what you have is the better students, the ones who do better with book learning, are getting the jobs and students that are mediocre have college degrees and college debt and they can't get a job in their field.  And they end up going into alternative careers where they aren't using their college degree, but they are saddled with years and years worth of student loan payments.

And the flip side is that we now have a shortage of qualified vocationally trained employees.  There used to be a balance and that young adults who were not as good at book learning went into careers like plumbing, electrical, carpentry, medical technicians, cooking/chef, auto mechanic, general contracting, house building, locksmithing, and so on.  Now, many of the individuals who would have gone into those careers have been pushed to go to college.  Some of them go to college and drop out part-way through and have college debt to repay.  Some of them actually graduate and can't get a job in their field and end up with college debt.  Many of these individuals would have been better of going into training, apprenticeship, or vocational education to learn trades without accumulating student loan debt.

So, back to you, PP.  While I understand the desire for your children to go to college (I want mine to go, too), but stop and try to understand your child and see if there might be a better path for her that does not involve college.  She might have interests or skills that would be better suited to something else that might involve a different type of training and she might get a great career out of an alternative to college.[/quote]

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