My view that college is for everyone is in response to the ethos that college isn't for everyone. The latter view is completely ignorant. Why would anyone subscribe to such a belief? Economic problems aside, everyone should go (and graduate from) some sort of college. Obviously there are many benefits to college, but this is self-evident so I will not waste time listing them here.

What I will say, however, is that everyone should attend college, even if it is just to see what subjects one likes and, thus, what job opportunities one might want to strive for. I would even say that even if one wants to have a job that doesn't require college (such as, I don't know, a garbageman?), he or she should be forced to attend any college just to further his or her knowledge.

Why is elementary schooling and high school education (until one turns 18?) required, but college is not? It's simply ridiculous!

What do you think?

Because unlike high school, college costs a lot of money, and if everyone were to attend college, there would have to be about double the amount colleges than we currently have. I don't see this happening.

I agree. Education should be lifelong. I raised my family; my son starts college next year. I was going to school when I came up pregnant..and regretfully put my own education on hold. I started back--last year.

You spend some time on a campus and it seems so obvious--everybody should be in school.

If you really want to go to college you can.

If you want to sit around and Btch about the system, you can do that too. There are options out there for people, whether they take it or not, is their own decision.

I believe that if you try hard enough anything is possible, anything.

Just to clarify, do you consider trade schools, apprenticeships, etc. as college?

If not, then there are a lot of reasons. For one, college is expensive, and not everyone can afford it.

Some people have a career lined up without college

it's your life, and once your an adult, no one has the right to tell you how to live it or what to do with it.

Some of the least educated and experienced people I know are college professors and the like, who, because of their continual education, don't have the world experience necessary to function in any other role now.

The same people are also usually dreadfully boring.

Certain people, myself included, HATE the American school system and cannot/could not wait for high school to end so you can forge your own way in the world, and 2-8 more years of schooling is just a mental impossibility.

going to college doesn't make you smart. Not going to college doesn't make you stupid. Similarly, just because you get great grades and are 'cut out' for college does not, by ANY MEANS make you any smarter than anyone else. The stupidest people i know get A's.

I agree, it costs too much.

I finished college in the late 80's but it was a paid internship yay...so I didn't spend a dime,

but university in 2000 (anthropology/soc) costing me an arm and a leg in student loans now. Despite the rumor that the loans are forgiven if you are a single parent, it isn't true grr.

After being laid off from my long time job I'm considering going back to college. I figure if I can become an EMT and learn to speak Spanish, I can get a job anywhere in the U.S. that I want. I'm almost 50 years old and coming to realize, it's never too late.

My youngest child is in Afghanistan at the moment but will rotate home soon. She's going back to college on the Armies dime. In a few years she will graduate with a bachelors degree, let her time expire, then reinlist as an officer. She's making a career of it.

College is an excellent step in these hard times. Times will get better and having a degree or sheepskin on the wall will help you make a better life for yourself and your family.

Plus if I'm in school, my unemployment will run for a lot longer.

lol no djon,

was single parent before I decided to go back for a univ. degree.

now single because of 9-11 mostly, he was muslim, I am not.

I'm sorry, but I do not have to spend thousands upon thousands of dollars a year to further my education.

I have taught myself programming in C, Perl, and PHP through my own studies. I am can read and write in Sanskrit, Arabic, Urdu, and Bengali through my own studies. I am knowledgeable of most major cultures and religion. My knowledge of theoretical physics surpasses that of even some college students. The practice of astral projection and lucid dreaming were both learned through reading books and experience. I have learned to think outside the box, instead of following the mundane stay between the lines thinking that the education system has become. Be it studying cryptology, or deep sea organisms - from the ancient sport of falconry to teaching myself guitar, it has all been self taught.

Do you see a pattern?

This was all knowledge I attained myself. Knowledge does not cost money. While I agree that some people lack the motivation to study by themselves, or stay at something when there is no penalty to stop, on the other hand there are other people who are always striving to learn more because they want to. Not because they are forced to.

I am also a believer that the twelve grades not including K is more then enough time for a student to figure out what kind of interests they have. Most people by the age of eighteen have a solid idea of what direction they are going in life. Many of the directions do not require college.

While I myself obtained a degree in network engineering, I do not see how it should be required of everybody. Somebody also could have studied every book my courses required and come out with the same information. For much less of a price. Yes, a teacher is there to help, but not everybody requires a hand helping them along the whole way.

And lastly, I strongly think that people who cannot afford college should have more options to help them achieve their goals. Not everybody can afford it, and even myself had trouble paying while working a full time job.

All citizens should have the option, but by no means should it be forced.


[edit on 5/6/2009 by deadline527]

Originally posted by baseball101
of course some people i'm sure will say that college is just part of the NWO agenda or what not...

Actually, a major social function of college is to keep workers out of the labor market. This is why we progressively dumb down our educational system, from top to bottom.

I was taught that in college.

If everyone attended and received a Collegiate Level education, then what advantages would Academic Degrees emanating therefrom serve?

Not to mention the fact that some bum who lounges upon their torn up sofa all day, or someone who resorts to a life of Robbery, Muggings, and Murder, hardly deserves the same opportunities as the individual who works hard, studies, and perseveres in their pursuit of a Higher Education.

Equal Opportunity does not, and should not, automatically mean an Equal Outcome.