The $500,000 bullet point is absurd and I won’t address it.
The $26K average annual cost of in-state attendance for living on campus does not seem outrageous. There would be a cost for food and shelter whether one is a student or not.
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This is true. We are starting to reach a turning point where demand for college is falling. Aka the natural dynamics of pricing too high. Enrollment is going down and vocational schools are picking up.
Our culture has this academic insanity drilled into kids through high school. Like getting into MIT is the only real thing they can accomplish at 18. It’s all or nothing
We should also bring back wood shop and things like that in middle/high school. Whether you go to college or not those should be part of public education, imo (and if we need to cut something I’d be more than happy to suggest choir, band and/or foreign language).
That sure was fun when I took those classes. No one lost a finger. But, I’m guessing one too many fingers were lopped off to make this an insurance nightmare.
Now, an after-school class, or simply a replacement school that is lawyered up real good? Sure.
Maybe the parents can just sign a waiver? If you don’t sign a waiver then you get to take choir.
With the way foreign language is taught in the US, I’d be on board with eliminating it from public education.
Works the same way in the UK.
The international folks subsidise the home folks so that the Canadian taxpayer pays in less.
I’m fine with aging out. Education is very expensive. I think we have to cap it at some point.
I suppose we may have different definitions of “heavily” subsidized.
Also, I’m fine with schools making a profit on international students.
One of my relatives took “Computer aided manufacturing” in HS. Seems like a better idea than woodshop in the 21st century. The course actually provided credit toward a community college program.
When I was in HS, they told us colleges would expect two years of foreign language. So we have to start with colleges.
My oldest starts high school next year and part of the curriculum for her engineering academy class (elective that she takes all 4 years) is a CAD portion with optional certification through the local community college.
There is still going to be a need for a lot of wood to be worked in the foreseeable future, and knowing how to do that work is useful. Even if your job doesn’t depend on it.
Lol fuerdai
I think a lot of it too is just learning to work with your hands a bit. Even just an appreciation for different types of work. When even middle/high school becomes purely academic it’s no wonder there’s a sense that it’s college or bust.
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I get a lot of “ when are we ever going to need geometry in real life?”
I generally say something about giving them tools that they will have to figure out whether or not they want ti use. (Yeah, they don’t buy it, but I try and put it back on their own choices. My job is to teach them about the tools. They get to decide when and where to use them)
But, for most of them, if they ever do use the geometry tools, they’ll probably also be using some tools like saws and drills.
I’m sure I interact with some students who are like that, but I can never tell. Some of them are Canadians, some are probably beyond rich but don’t present that way, and some are likely broke ass mf’ers.
A few weeks ago when i was camping with some students and we forgot our dishes, I offered ‘drive an hour to a restaurant for breakfast’ as an option. One of the students didn’t want to, and offered up ‘I don’t want to spend the money’ as the reason. And I’d probably guessed he wasn’t broke. So, really hard to tell.
that same student doesn’t have a job after graduation so I called him a ‘effin jobless hobo’ and maybe I wasn’t wrong.
Ask them to draw up, then cut tread risers for stairs on a deck.
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I definitely used some basic math for some decking I did
My brother does finish carpentry. I asked him how often he uses trigonometry, and he said pretty much every day (mostly for stairs). He often has others call him to help them out with some of the more complicated stuff they can’t handle the math on.
I did relay that information to my students.
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