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Not every child should be forced to go to college. I know too many children who are too pressured to go to college when they'd do better as plumbers, service people, electricians, and so on. Since when are those jobs to be ashamed of?

Wasn't it all those people with college degrees who crashed our economy? I'm getting tired of the college for everybody pressure. There's alot more to success than that.

Mom, while that argument may have held water 10 years ago, you should take a look at the math that plumbers and electricians need to do their jobs. In addition, most of those professions - through apprenticeships - are now requiring certifications that are delivered through community colleges. Also, no one is forcing anyone to got to college. But the reality is that *if* one is prepared for college, one is also prepared to learn. Whatever comes along.

In our growing "green" economy, those jobs that you think folks are ashamed of - building trades, mechanics, etc. - most of them are requiring certification. Certification that requires some postsecondary education. I agree that we shouldn't be talking about college as the end of it all: it's college for what? Years ago General Motors started requiring college degrees for ALL its floor employees.

Which would you prefer: an electrician who learned at the feet of his father (or brother, cousin or uncle) and is unlicensed, or someone who actually has an AA degree in electrican engineering? If you're prefer the former, good luck with that renovation.

I think the operative word here is "college-ready", not "enrolled in college". Certainly (and the OP states this), not every single student should be expected to attend college. It would redundant and unnecessary. However, building "college-ready" skills for all students is still highly beneficial, and provides the most flexibility. We don't want our kids to be competent at Algebra just because it appears on the SAT for example, we want them to know it to be problem solvers for life.

Being academically prepared to attend college...if you wanted...represents a solid academic and social benchmark of skills. You don't have to go if you don't want...but why close doors for yourself? Why should we close doors for our students?rel

Mom, I have to agree with Marktropolis and RPOA. All those people who write about the "upskilling" of the trades have a point. It's also true that may jobs in the next 20 years will not require a college degree, but those jobs will generally not pay very well. I'm worried that so many people without post-secondary training, the people who will do those jobs, will lack that training by circumstance rather than by choice. So preparing everyone for college gives people choices they would otherwise not have. Without the leveling experience of college preparation, we can maintain a permanent underclass and forget our dreams of social mobility.

It's an entirely different--but also very important--question what we should do about necessary jobs that don't pay a living wage. We need people to do those jobs, but we don't seem to have many ideas for keeping those people out of working poverty.

My son is not from a poor family. He is not a minority. He doesn't fit the profile of students who don't go to college. But he's not college material, and I say that without negative judgment. He has a mild learning disability and is very good with his hands. He is inventive, creative, a hard worker and an asset to any country. He can fix anything, but he'll wither in a college environment.

All the pressure to go to college is making him miserable. It's a good thing his parents can cut through all those messages coming from the school, which *expects* him to do things he doesn't want to do and we don't think he has to do. But there's only so much we can do when his teachers make him feel small for what he is and what he wants to do. I'm furious.

He'll have all kinds of possibilities in his future if people are willing to help him create that future on terms that suit his skills and interests. College just isn't the way for him, which is why I *hate* all the college-for-all slogans he has to hear all the time.

RPOA is correct that the operative word is "building "college-ready" skills for all students." And agreeing with Marktropolis, I'd also say that plumbers, "green" workers etc. also deserve the opportunity to express and wrestle with their humanity through the humanities. But making a person feel small because he does want college is awful. How did we get to a place like that?

I also agree, however, that college completion would be a far better metric than test scores. But any accountability system for education must rest on caring integrity, and I don't see how you mandate that in a NCLB-type way.