The students are choosing to continue to learn impractical things. They are choosing to run up debt, they are choosing to just look down on trade and look down on being practical. I should have articulated, that life is about being practical, not brutal. A practical reality. Being a realist. I am bewildered as to why people choose to keep making the wrong choices, despite the obvious consequences.
This generation has all the information in the world to make the right choices, but chooses to make irresponsible ones. They should be out learning a trade and learning useful things while enjoying life. Yet they choose to ignore the realities of our economy and realities of what they should be learning and how they should be building their lives along lines of practical ways of making a living.
Yet, many are getting the idea that life should be fun, with a little work on the side.
Yup.
Want a job...learn a trade. Ever try to find a plumber?
Almost all of our students worked AND went to school. There really wasn't much time for the impractical stuff. Some had children to deal with or aged parents, or a variety of other things. One young man (19) had to deal with his alcoholic mother.
They don't ignore reality--they DEAL with it. I often asked them, with a smile, if they were on the four-year plan to finish two years (60 units). Sometimes they came to class and I could see that they were just BEAT.
People don't stop making bad choices just because they are older. Some continue the stupidity throughout their entire lives. Some people learn early. There is no predictor, I found.
I LOVED those students and was proud of them and their accomplishments. I was on their side! They deserved it.