Creditialism - Matt Yglesias
Now I have two parents who don't hold college degrees and they have done fairly well for themselves. My grandfather made to the ninth grade and then went to work. College degrees are not the be-all, end-all of creditials. I have two bachelors and one master's degrees but that doesn't mean squat when it comes to jewelry work. And I have many friends who never went to college but are doing well for themselves. They don't see a need for it.
But the way most education systems are set up now, college is the ultimate goal. I think this is wrong. There are some kids who simply don't belong in college. Whether it's due to college not being their thing, college not being the place they can learn or, and sit down before you read this, they simply don't have the aptitude for it. And this, I think, is the key for why college has taken this glorified place in American minds. We are afraid of telling someone that they are not smart enough for college. The problem is, there are people not smart enough for college. Not to say they aren't smart but that their intelligence doesn't work on the college level. They can do a lot of other things very well but taking college exams, writing papers or conducting lab experiements is not one of them.
Now I'm hesistant to say that we should introduce a tracking system ala Japan and England. But we might at least consider it instead of continuing the lie that all minds are equal. The key here is ensuring that everyone has equal access to quality education, but education that will actually help them once out of school.
Sunday, April 29, 2007
Elitism of Education
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1 comment:
I believe that you and I have had this conversation and I’d like to contribute a minor rant on the topic…
If I may make an argument in favor of a tracking system, akin to that used in parts of Europe and Asia, I would like to add that the American educational system uses the college years and "experience" as a sort of extended childhood, during which students/children may continue to "find themselves" and cast about to find a proper career for themselves. This is inappropriate for a number of reasons. I think it is a waste of time, resources and cultural value to give (privileged) students/children until they are 19-25 years old to figure out what they "want to be when they grow up". I believe it would be more efficient and ultimately result in better decisions for many students/children, if aptitude and personality examinations were implemented, beginning in early adolescence, to determine whether college is appropriate, and furthermore, what course of study is best suited to that student.
Then, I believe, only those students who are, as you put it, capable of succeeding in college-level courses would continue to that level and others, whose talents lie elsewhere, could pursue a more appropriate level of vocation training or apprenticeship, words which have lost their once-respected associations in today’s culture. This way, we would get students studying philosophy or whateverthehell, who are actually *good* at philosophy and students studying refrigerator repair who ought to be there, and both are equally respectable courses of study and appropriate to that individual.
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