Quote :

"I think the single largest problem in American education is the underlying belief that every single child should go to college."

In the UK, kids have more options once they apparoach HS. Over there, once you finish halfway through HS (equivalent of grade 10), either you can continue for the next 2 years, so that you can enter university after that, or you can leave and enter one of several technical/vocational colleges, which teach things just as plumbing, carpentry, electrician stuff, fitness training, etc.

As you know, there are education boards in the UK, which means that education till the end of HS is standardized, and HS exams are conducted by the boards (everybody gets the same exam) (These HS qualifications have names: GCSE/O-Level, and then A-Level).

In the same vein, those vocational colleges also have standardized syllabi, which means that standards are maintained at all colleges offering those programs, and the qualifications of one person are equal to that of another's. Not only that, but they offer the qualification in these trades to different levels: Level 1, Level 2, and Level 3, which is the highest. So, it is easy to compare different people's abilities, and easy for the employer as well.

6/10/2007 2:04:51 AM

The problem with high school now is that when a student graduates, he doesn't really have any marketable skills. If a student can't attend college (whether it be for academic reasons, economic reasons, or lack of desire) his career options are very, very limited. He's then stuck...not enough education as is and unable/unwilling to attend college.

The answer is to make a high school education applicable, not make college 'attainable'. You should be able to graduate high school with a marketable skill set that doesn't relegate one to menial jobs.

I'm not interested in any sort of federal standardization of education. There are too many variation in local economies across the nation to make nationwide standardization effective or efficient. I would like to see options that allow high school students to begin to specialize in whatever field they are interested in, similar to what you described in the UK. College should, however, remain open to all, regardless of which path they selected in high school.

6/10/2007 1:28:36 PM

I'd say that 80% or more of the people I know with college degrees have no marketable skills either.

6/10/2007 2:47:27 PM