Final soapbox rant of the afternoon - that abyss called “education”:

That Elusive Diploma

[…]

Just over half (58 percent) of first-time, full-time students who entered a four-year U.S. college or university in 2004 graduated by 2010, according to the government’s National Center for Education Statistics. Among Hispanics, the proportion is only 50 percent; for African-Americans, just 40 percent. And of students who attend two-year public community colleges, only about 20 percent earn a certificate or a degree within three years.

Why is this happening? The problem is complicated, but two major reasons emerge: Students drop out because of a lack of money, a lack of preparation to meet the academic challenges, or both.

[Extensive section on the costs of higher education …]

One strategy that has proven successful is to offer courses, often known as First-Year Experience programs, that teach students the basic skills of academic life. “It’s one of the very few interventions in education that has data behind it,” said Robert S. Feldman, dean of the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Massachusetts. These courses teach how to take notes, ask questions in class, navigate a campus, and get along with roommates. “The majority of students don’t have great preparation coming out of high school,” Feldman said. Students who take First Year Experience courses are less likely to drop out, are more socially engaged, and have higher grade-point averages when they graduate than students who don’t. Feldman prefers that these courses be required and offered for credit because, if given a choice, “students always think they don’t need it.”

[…]

Teach “how to take notes”? “ask questions in class”? “navigate a campus”? WTF?

Where did the previous 12 years of education go?

Some campuses are indeed large, even intimidating to the newcomer, but it takes all of a what, a week, to walk around and become familiar with key buildings and offices?

Here is something, I’d call it “truth” but that’ll likely irk someone, to deal with: not everyone is fit for higher education.

Ergo, college is not for everyone.

And we shouldn’t pretend it is otherwise, because that is a form of cruelty.

And, insisting that everyone goes to college is a backhand way of denigrating those jobs that simply don’t require 4 years of academic study.

So let’s just stop it.