To MFS (or, shall I say, MMV), I don’t know if I’d read that far back (I’ve only been following your site for about a year), but you make a point that is sadly too true. It is more politically correct to offend nobody and, thereby, help nobody.

It’s sort of a parallel to the thought “please all, and you will please none.”

http://mentalmultivitamin.blogspot.com/2003/11/about-college.html

From that entry:

In fits and starts, we have eliminated ability tracking from our schools; no more canaries, orioles, and blue jays in our classrooms; we are all birds, capable of fantastic eagle-like flight, although in this brave new classroom, no one dares to fly too high, too fast, or too soon. These days, teachers are not encouraged or trained to nurture the potential best (Best? Why, there is no best!) but rather to cater to the at-risk, to teach to the middle, and, as a result, to give everyone a just-so-so education. We parents, teachers, students celebrate and reward the “above average” in Lake Woebegone; in other words, the mediocre. And nowhere is this more depressingly apparent than in our system of higher education, where, at some point in the last six decades, we came to embrace the notion that anyone who wants it should have access to a college education, which has (pardon the pun) by degrees, reduced the value of the college diploma to a mass transit pass, duly punched as one hops along the map of his life: preschool, elementary school, high school, college, job, retirement, death (with an ample bit of taxes tossed in for good measure).

Doubt me? Name twelve parents who number themselves among our nation’s middle class (I know, I know — who doesn’t?) who don’t expect their children to go to college after high school. It would be easier to find fifty, nay, one hundred who will be humiliated if their little Brandon or Dylan or Taylor doesn’t get into if not a good school at least a decent school. And they’re willing to pay; in fact, via college funds and other savings plans, they have been paying for just this moment in their little darlin’s life since, oh, before they were born.

I’ve had students who SHOULD NOT take any more math classes, and yet the state of Michigan requires Advanced Algebra for ALL students (a lot of states are either doing this, or about to require it). That’s ridiculous. I know I’m opening myself up to heated debate here, but so many average adults barely use algebra - why require that plus two more years.

If you WANT a science/engineering job, then of course you need it… but not everybody wants to go there.

Anyhow, I’d better not try to take over your page here.

And I’d point out to Queenie that she’s right… when talking about traditional, white-collar jobs. But many blue-collar, trade-type jobs can be had without college. Being a chef was mentioned above, and I happen to know that welding is in high demand. And a lot of places will still contribute to those who are going back to school while working.

One last point - the community college route is a nice one, as well. You still graduate from a 4-year, but with less cost, smaller classes (the fresh/soph classes are typically the largest), closer to home. Where I went to school, there was this attitude that if you didn’t go straight to a 4-year you had failed… silly.