Wednesday, January 17, 2007

Are Too Many Students Going to College?

By Bryan O’Keefe

That’s the question that Charles Murray, a prolific thinker and our friend up at AEI, asks in a provocative essay in today’s Wall Street Journal. Murray’s basic answer is yes and I would be inclined to agree.

Murray bases most of his argument on IQ scores, which is a topic that he has written about frequently over the years. He argues very persuasively that, based on IQ scores, only about 25 percent of high school graduates – at the max – should be attending college. Unfortunately, that number has soared to 45 percent in recent years, meaning that many students simply do not have the intellectual capabilities to sustain themselves in higher education – no matter how hard they try

He also makes the excellent point that many students really aren’t learning anything in college these days and that these students would be better off in either two-year colleges or pursuing vocational careers. I can second his notion about vocational careers with my own personal experience. A very good friend of mine from high school decided that instead of going to college, he would learn how to become a plumber. Through a combination of classes and apprenticeships, he has mastered the trade and now works as an industrial plumber and steamfitter, working on various large-scale industrial piping projects in the Pittsburgh area. He has a satisfying job and his income is well north of my own. Contrast that experience with many other people from my high school who were labeled as “not college material”. Most of these students took two paths: They tried to go to college and they failed miserably. Or they graduated from high school and didn’t do too much afterwards. Both of these groups usually end up in low-wage jobs and probably harbor some resentment about why they cannot get ahead more in life.

There is no doubt that both of these groups would have benefited enormously from learning a vocation or trade, like my friend. But psychologically, we have unfortunately conditioned students these days to think that it’s either succeeding in college or serving up hamburgers at McDonald’s, when, in reality, there are many more options available.

I won’t steal any more of Charles’s thunder, especially since he lays out the case better than I can.

(Another author who has written on this topic is Jackson Toby, a noted sociologist from Rutgers University, and somebody that CCAP is working with now on this subject.)

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Mr. Smith,
I think one of Mr. O'Keefe's points is that some people simply are not capable of digesting the concepts introduced at college.

Do you think this could be possible?

--If so, which would you favor, to:
A) Lower the standards of all colleges by forcing professors to teach to the least common denominator
B) Hire more teachers (and pay each less) to ensure each student received maximum effort during the limited time for instruction.
OR
C) Let the inevitable gap in the quality of institutions develop to the point that the vast majority of colleges are simply an extension to high school. (A baseline requirement for most employers holding little to no weight as to what the employee will have to offer the employer in intellectual ability)?

--If not, then you must believe that all human beings are physically capable of learning the same concepts. If this is the case, do you have any evidence to support this?

Nerraw Tefub said...

Mr. Smith,

You make some very good points. I particularly agree with your arguments to:
-increase education to strengthen society
-increase the quality of teachers to enable them to actually facilitate learning for more students (as opposed to meeting a curve)
-increasing efficiency of our universities (making teachers work harder)

Acknowledge that these are the problems and then work more directly to solve each one. Keep it simple...

The main point of O'Keefe's post is that all high school graduates "simply do not have the intellectual capacity to sustain themselves in higher education - no matter how hard they try." This is based off of hard data (IQ tests).

You would argue that these students simply haven't been taught correctly. I actually agree...(Not based on any studies that I have read, but just from life experience)

However, I do not believe that paying college teachers less and decreasing the average standard of colleges is the best way to solve the problem that students are not being taught properly in high school.

Let's acknowledge that these are the problems that need solved and work more directly to solve them.

Just to reiterate, I agree that most human beings are capable of learning the same concepts if taught correctly. But I believe that by the time these people get to college the gaps between their levels of education inhibits teaching in groups as in a college settings. The fact is that teaching is and always will be time restricted. Students can't just be capable of learning concepts... they must be capable of learning concepts in the time allotted and with number and quality of teachers available.

I would be interested to know your background or where you were raised to think that all high school graduates could attend college (if they wanted to).

I suspect that you are young and have primarily only come in contact with educated people. This is not the group Mr. O'Keefe is talking about. He is talking about the rest of society. The blue-collar workers.

In my blue-collar work environment, I am surrounded by many people that I believe are capable of learning and growing, but the more time I spend trying to get everyone to the same level, the less we all move forward. But the less time I spend getting everyone to the same level, the harder it is to get everyone to move forward. Therefore it takes a balance of both. BUT everything becomes much easier if I get the right people in the jobs in the first place.

I would equate this to our current argument. The real goal is to increase the overall education of society.

If a human's education is a tree, his parents are his soil and climate, his K-12 education is his roots, and his college is simply the foliage. Parental education should be goal number one as anyone knows that sunlight and water is the best way to get a tree to grow. Then the next step is strong K-12 education for roots are essential to withstand future problems. The foliage will be the natural outgrowth of all of these.

The real solution is to stop arguing about college and focus on improving parents and K-12.