There is nothing wrong with working with your hands. We need more of those people. Electricians. Plumbers. Welders. And on and on.
Agreed, and in addition to the fact that we need electricians, plumbers, welders, etc, those are chronically undersupplied.
Compare job prospects of trained electricians/plumbers/welders to those of people with degrees in sociology/art history/ploysci.
My view is that the concept of sending everyone* derives, I think, from the Lake Wobegon effect. In Garrison Keillor's fictional Lake Wobegon, Minnesota famously, "all the children are above average".
That may work in fiction but here in reality precisely half of the children are above average and the other half are . . . not.
My theory is that a college degree is probably only worthwhile for roughly the smartest quarter of people. Table:
[th]
[color=var(--wp--preset--color--vivid-purple)]IQ[/b][/font][/size][/color][/th]
[th]
[color=var(--wp--preset--color--vivid-purple)]Description[/b][/b][/color][/th]
[th]
[color=var(--wp--preset--color--vivid-purple)]% of Population[/b][/font][/size][/color][/th]
[th]
130+[/th]
[th]
120–129[/th]
[th]
110–119[/th]
[th]
90–109[/th]
[th]
80–89[/th]
[th]
70–79[/th]
[th]
69 and below[/th]
75th percentile corresponds to an iq of 110 (2.2+6.7×16.1=25).
My view:
- 130+, Very Superior, roughly the smartest of a randomly selected 50 people: These folks should pretty much all go to not only college but grad school as well.
- 120-129, Superior, roughly the rest of the smartest one-out-of-ten: These should definitely go to college and some should pursue grad school.
- 110-119, High Average, roughly the rest of the smartest one-in-four: A college degree is generally going to be worthwhile for these folks but there are exceptions. Also, if they choose to "work with their hands" they'll generally be among the smartest in their field which will typically mean that they rapidly climb to become supervisors and end up as productive and as well paid as their college-educated peers.
- 100-109 (I've split average), above average, the rest of the smartest half: These folks are generally NOT well served by going to college. Many drop out or flunk out and those that succeed generally have to give up their dreams of becoming engineers and change their major to something less challenging in order to complete a degree.
- 90-100, below average, and everyone below here: College is almost always a waste of time for these folks. However at least some are still capable of learning a trade and finding gainful employment.
*I realize that we don't actually send "everyone" to college but the 2/3 - 3/4 that we do send is, IMHO much closer to everyone than it is to an appropriate number.
