Honey, I have known lots of stupid people who have graduated college, and the curricula that many are subjected to in colleges today leave them with little knowledge of history or of writing skills.
Bugs the heck out of me to see an elitist attitude about who is and who is not college material.
Students can be divided based on their abilities and preferences at a relatively young age. Their curricula can then be tailored to their test results. At one point in our history, this was a practice in education.
But, somehow, vocational schools came to be viewed as inferior to college prep. Manual labor and the trades came to be looked down upon.
What we are now stuck with is a glut of degree holders who have no common sense or problem-solving skills and who don’t know how to do much of anything unless it involves phone apps of some sort.
Those first two sentences suggest a belief in what is now being called "Common Core." Have you heard about it? Like it?
The assertion in the last sentence is new to me. Just when was this a practice in the U.S.?
And that last paragraph of yours is just sheer hogwash. I would think that there are plenty of men and women recently graduated from college who have common sense, knowledge of the English language, and problem-solving skills. All categorical statements are false...even this one.
Exactly, manual labor has its worth.