Posted on 01/17/2007 5:56:14 AM PST by Pharmboy
Too many Americans are going to college.
The topic yesterday was education and children in the lower half of the intelligence distribution. Today I turn to the upper half, people with IQs of 100 or higher. Today's simple truth is that far too many of them are going to four-year colleges. Begin with those barely into the top half, those with average intelligence. To have an IQ of 100 means that a tough high-school course pushes you about as far as your academic talents will take you. If you are average in math ability, you may struggle with algebra and probably fail a calculus course. If you are average in verbal skills, you often misinterpret complex text and make errors in logic.
These are not devastating shortcomings. You are smart enough to engage in any of hundreds of occupations. You can acquire more knowledge if it is presented in a format commensurate with your intellectual skills. But a genuine college education in the arts and sciences begins where your skills leave off.
In engineering and most of the natural sciences, the demarcation between high-school material and college-level material is brutally obvious. If you cannot handle the math, you cannot pass the courses. In the humanities and social sciences, the demarcation is fuzzier. It is possible for someone with an IQ of 100 to sit in the lectures of Economics 1, read the textbook, and write answers in an examination book. But students who cannot follow complex arguments accurately are not really learning economics. They are taking away a mishmash of half-understood information and outright misunderstandings that probably leave them under the illusion that they know something they do not. (A depressing research literature documents one's inability to recognize one's own incompetence.) Traditionally and properly understood,
(Excerpt) Read more at opinionjournal.com ...
Good discussion yesterday about the topic. It continues...
The only thing wrong with vocational schools is that there aren't enough of them. When I compare the number and range of vocational classes taught at my son's high school to the school that I attended, his choices are severely limited. Shops and labs cost more money than a room full of desks, and there are plenty of legal liability issues too.
Murray's point (that too many go to college) is well made. In my case, my son wants to be an engineer, and without the experience of time in the shops, his chances for future success are compromised.
Straight from Albert Jay Nock...
The writer obviously hasn't been to any of the schools in my town. The "Advanced" programs here would insult the intelligence of an orangutan.
I can't disagree with him. I know a number of people who despite having other opportunities chose some blue-collar occupation--carpenter, electrician, production splicer for the local Baby Bell, horse trainer, builder, etc.--and they are not only prosperous but happy in their work. On the other hand I don't know a single lawyer who is happy in his work. It's just not clear that we all have to have college degrees (much less advanced degrees, which are becoming the norm).
A close friend is a refridgeration guy who started his career at a trade high school.One day we were talking about how many guys were in his business and we pulled out a phone book for our area and as someone else brought up a million lawyers and 3 refridgeration guys. By the way financially my friend has NO complaints !!!
Thanks for posting. I have always believed in a rigorous segregation by ability.
This is the real reason it's so popular, not the "job training" he emphasizes.
I think Murray is dismissive of physical or mechanical intelligence. A good craftsman is surely smart although not necessarily on what an IQ test measures. But Murray is right that the academic emphasis in today's schools doesn't give all students a chance to play to their strengths.
Mrs VS
I remember seeing the province of Ontarion, Canada, brag that 59% of the workforce there had a 4 year degree, but that only about 25% of Americans have a degree. The problem is that the value of a Bachelor's degree becomes diluted if everyone goes to college. There isn't anyone to do the technical work. I can remember guys from highscholl that did go to vocational school to become tool and die makers and other kids parents were shocked that they would do that. They wondered how they screwed up their lives. After all, it would be better to be an accountant, lawyer, teacher, doctor, engineer or any number of white collar careers. If one worked where one had to get his hands dirty, it was considered a failed life. The point of this story was that the guys who went into tool and die making very quickly had 6 figure incomes and, if they started their own shop, they did even better. And that was 15 years ago in Canada. For some reason, there was a strong disdain for this kind of career back home. Too bad there were a lot of people with degrees that could not find employment because there was not enough work for degree holders and you got these people working for the tool and die guys!
My husband and I have a front row seat to this problem. We own a heating and air conditioning business and my husband has taught HVACR at a local adult education tech school at night for 27 years.
There is a serious decline in interest and enrollment in these areas. Kids are being pushed into college/hi tech areas and not encouraged to pursue blue collar work.
We even set up a Vocational Education Scholarship at our local high school to encourage students to look at this type of work.
We have a very difficult time finding qualified help for our business as does everyone else in our field and these are very good paying jobs.
Murray is right when he says that too many people are going to college. For too many students, going to college has become a rite of passage and a way to avoid getting a job. And he is right about the valuable training that two-year colleges offer. But I don't know that a decision to go to a four-year college should be based on having an IQ of 115 or more. Success in college has just as much to do with self-discipline and hard work as does with intelligence.
One thing is clear, though. And that is that four-year colleges could end up pricing themselves out of the market. If they keep raising tuition, they will end up losing students and this whole argument will become moot.
Not really. Todays engineers spend very little time with "shop" type stuff. It's all computer modelling software/programs. Still need the math, though.
Good article, leaving aside the blah blah blah about IQ. There's no reason those with an only average or slightly above IQ, but a desire for knowledge and understand, should not go to university if they can get in. Hard work and desire DO count for a lot.
Personally I fell into the category of those who were intelligent enough for college, with familial expectations that I would attend, but little real interest in it myself. What I did end up getting a degree in (computer science) would likely have been better approached in an engineering or (more likely for me, really) technical school. I might have been even happier overall if I'd learned a trade, instead, since I am a person who gets great satisfaction from being able to see and touch the fruits of my labor.
Thanks for today's installment especially since it hits close to home for me as a business & industry training consultant at a career/technology school (new politically correct term for vocational school). While I don't work directly with the long-term career programs, I do have a significant amount of interaction with the instructors as subject matter experts when working with industry.
I fully agree with the author's thesis and the way he supports it with the extrapolation from the IQ distribution. I specialize in working with manufacturing industries where the need for competent CNC machine operators and programmers is huge yet the area career-tech schools cannot meet the need because so few are taking the coursework. I join the author in his concern about where we will find competent tradespersons in the future if this trend is not addressed.
Some states (including Texas) are throwing kids off the bus by requiring 4 years of math in high school, but not including things like Consumer Math. Few kids need Cal or Pre Cal for any job.
A&M did something very similar over 10 years ago by requiring Elementary Ed students to take Calculas. I would be tickled if they could do regular math as well.
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