Tuning In to Dropping Out
5th March 2012
Alex Tabarrok looks at our dysfunctional education system.
In 2009 the United States graduated 89,140 students in the visual and performing arts, more than in computer science, math, and chemical engineering combined and more than double the number of visual-and-performing-arts graduates in 1985.
Most of it subsidized by the taxpayers. And just look where that’s got us! Isn’t it amazing?
Thus, an argument can be made for subsidizing students in fields with potentially large spillovers, such as microbiology, chemical engineering, and computer science. But there is little justification for subsidizing sociology, dance, and English majors.
Sure there is — that’s where the Children of the Crust dwell, and what the Crust want, the Crust get … on YOUR dime.
In the 21st century, an astounding 25 percent of American men do not graduate from high school. A big part of the problem is that the United States has paved a single road to knowledge, the road through the classroom. “Sit down, stay quiet, and absorb. Do this for 12 to 16 years,” we tell the students, “and all will be well.” Lots of students, however, crash before they reach the end of the road. Who can blame them? Sit-down learning is not for everyone, perhaps not even for most people. There are many roads to an education.
And if you take them, you get tasered by your helicopter parents.
Consider those offered in Europe. In Germany, 97 percent of students graduate from high school, but only a third of these students go on to college. In the United States, we graduate fewer students from high school, but nearly two-thirds of those we graduate go to college. So are German students poorly educated? Not at all.
Instead of college, German students enter training and apprenticeship programs—many of which begin during high school. By the time they finish, they have had a far better practical education than most American students—equivalent to an American technical degree—and, as a result, they have an easier time entering the work force. Similarly, in Austria, Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, Norway, and Switzerland, between 40 to 70 percent of students opt for an educational program that combines classroom and workplace learning.
We used to do that in this country, until the COLLEGE FOR ALL AND DAMN THE EXPENSE BECAUSE ALL THE CHILDREN ARE ABOVE AVERAGE progressives took over. Teenage boys used to come out of high school with a useful skill — my father learned how to set type and run a printing press — and the girls were taught how to cook, sew, and manage a family.
But that was yesterday, and yesterday’s gone.
March 5th, 2012 at 12:54
Now how about telling the other half of the story?
The reason why German children–and their parents–are more than happy about entering a trade school or apprenticeship is because when they complete their course of study they will be able to make a good living thanks to the trade unions, which keep wages high for those occupations.
In the US, there is no such light at the end of the tunnel. The lifetime earning potential of a college graduate vis-a-vis a tradesman in this country mitigates against anyone opting for the latter career path. That’s why everyone wants to go to college, not because the Evil, Bad, Progressives decided it was a Good Idea.
I agree that it would be a good thing if everyone had to learn some kind of trade before they left high school, but the reality is there’s no percentage in it. The un- and under-employment rate for carpenters, plumbers, electricians, auto mechanics, etc., is higher than the national average, and until the housing glut is winnowed it will remain so. Not much use in having a trade if you can’t find work in it.
So, you can’t have it both ways: either you have strong unions and a large number of folks entering the trades, or you have weak unions and everyone clamoring for college.