Reply to Why Do We Keep Pushing Four Year Colleges for All Students?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote] I don't think people like the idea of someone's future being narrowed down for them while they are in their teens.[/quote]

This. My kids are going to college, absolutely. We value higher education. After college they can become anything they want. They can become a welder, electrician, plumber, an entrepreneur ... anything.  I'm paying for college. If you can do this as a parent, it would be foolish not to.[/quote]

I don't understand this attitude/POV.  [b]If a kid is keen on welding (as an example), why not encourage a year or two of specialized training/apprenticeship and spend the money on tools and starting a business. [/b] What can you learn in college that is specific to welding?  Unless your kid wants to study metallurgy and is willing to grapple with physical chemistry, material science, operations research, basic physics and statistics etc., in which case go to college.

The simple question that every student should ask every day is what am I learning and how can I use it to do what I want to do?  If you can't answer that you don't belong in college.  If your parents want you to attend college regardless, then enjoy the beer and co-eds,  but it's a waste.[/quote]

I'm not the PP you are responding to here, but I share PP's "attitude" on the value add of a college education. And the best answer I have to offer here is simply that a college education is [b]not[/b][i] a trade school. And that is where we differ, I think.
In my view, a college education it exposes you (at least in the US college system--first couple of years before you narrow in on courses that are designed to focus in on your degree field) to a whole world of theories, ideas, philosophers, how to think about a problem and consider various points of view, broad grasp of history, the poetry of writing/literature, art history/appreciation, basic psychology of human thought and evolution...all things that many people view as valuable to being an informed and enlightened person in the world. It's just cool to KNOW stuff and makes you a tad more interesting to talk to because when you have opinions, it is now based on something other than your own personal experience--whether or not you "use" what you learn in college to earn a living is irrelevant to why my family supports getting a college education. It just makes you a more well-rounded person with a greater depth of understanding about the world in which we live.
Plus...you'll totally beat your friends at Jeopardy.  :? [/quote]
That's all fine and dandy except you forget that college costs money. Going into thousands of dollars of debt just to beat your friends at jeopardy and become enlightened is just not something we should be supporting. [/quote]

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