A few points to make:
-So, will the tradescraft become a Bachelor's Degree? HVAC repair, Plumbing, Auto Mechanic? Will the people on the assembly line all have a BA in Demand Driven Auto Manufacure? You can rest assured that the person taking your order at McDonalds will be studying for his exams between cars.
-If everyone has a bachelors degree, they cease to be anything special. A while back, you could get a whole lot of jobs with just a High School diploma (sometimes with not even that much- my dad was a high school dropout and he ended up a paramedic); the ones who went to college got a really cool high pay job. Mr. Fancy Pants. Then, sometime around Vietnam, there was a huge glut in the number of kids out there with degrees. Suddenly, there weren't enough college-only jobs, and some of those 'better educated' folks started edging out people with HS diplomas right out the door. That has been continuing to this day. It is getting to the point that those jobs you used to need a Bachlors for now requires a Masters or better. If everyone has a degree, it will cease to mean anything.
-The huge push to get all of these people into college will create huge strains on the systems. Imagine tripling the sizes of most the major colleges around. Where are you going to put the extra buildings? Are all of these people going to be in dorms? How about teachers? If you have to triple the size of your teaching workforce (along with every other college out there), you are either going to have to offer a
whole lot more money, or you are going to have to lower your standards to the breaking point. Crappy teachers=crappy education. After all, there is already a teaching shortage now.
-There are a lot of people who just are not able to make it in college. This is either because they do not have the intelligence for it, or maybe not the drive or desire, the abilty to apply themselves or actually learn. That is why they suffer in high school. High schools that are already producing an astonishing number of functioning illiterates even now. The advocates would have you believe it is because the system is holding down minorities and not giving them a chance. To a degree, this is even true. I think the real trouble lies in two different directions, though. First, it is the cultures of some areas that hold them down, not the system. Some minorities are even ridiculed for trying to become a part of mainstream society (or 'playing the white man's game). I think the big one, though, is that someone is always on the back end of the bell-curve, no matter what ethnicity you are talking about. It is that thing about drive. There are some people who are absolutely driven to succeed; most of us fall somewhere in the middle (the bell, after all), and someone is inevitably on the back end. For every person who scores in the top 1% of your class, think of the one that makes up the bottom 1%.
EDITED for spelling, since it is the height of irony to have really obvious spelling errors while discussing illiteracy. I make no claim that all my spelling is correct, or even understandable.
Last edited by imortal (2009-03-02 19:33:53)
