If we educate them, they'll be prepared for college!

 Spoke with a friend of mine this weekend who works in another school in another part of the state. He told me his principal told him that we used to prepare these kids for college, but that's the past. Now we're preparing them for trades.



Let me start by saying I have absolutely nothing against people working in the trades. I have very successful family members and friends who do just that. I have absolutely NOTHING against people working in trades! I have nothing against kids not going to college if they don't want to, as long as they find another way to earn a living. 

But to say our job in education is not to prepare these kids for success in college is idiotic and just plain wrong! Our job is to educate kids and educated kids will be ready for college!

That doesn't mean they have to go to college. It means they have the opportunity to go to college if that's what they choose!

I did not want to go to college after high school. I didn't think I needed it. I went for a year because everyone expected me to. I spent all the money I'd saved working summers and returned home to go back to work. I beat around for the next 15 years before I decided to go back to school. 

I was fortunate that the school I graduated from, North Little Rock Northeast High School, prepared me to go to college. After 15 years out of school, earning a living first as a US Marine, then as a truck driver, then as a chicken and cattle farmer, I returned to school and graduated with a bachelors degree in Mathematics with a 4.0 GPA. I started as a teacher three years after I returned to college, and immediately enrolled in graduate school night classes. It took another three years, but I earned a masters degree in Mathematical Sciences with a 4.0 GPA. 

That was ONLY possible because the school I attended prepared me for college even though I did not want to go!

I realize now that God made me to be a teacher. When I started, I wasn't convinced I'd make it. I wasn't sure I could deal with kids. I wasn't sure my background as a Marine/truck driver/chicken and cattle farmer made me suitable for working with young, impressionable school kids. I was pretty rough around the edges after 20 years working in those fields. It took 20 years for me to figure out God made me to be a teacher.

I will forever be grateful that my high school prepared me, even though I didn't see the need. 

If we in K-12 education decide that it's not our job to prepare kids for college, who will? Where will our doctors, lawyers, teachers, engineers, etc come from? What about those kids like me who thought we knew what we wanted but took 15 years as an adult to realize we were made to be something that requires a college education?

Our job in education is to give kids tools to succeed when they leave. If we do our jobs and do them well, our kids will be ready to be Marines or go to college, or both. We will graduate kids who can choose to go to college or not, whenever they get ready.

If we decide we don't need to prepare them for college, we are shortchanging them and limiting their opportunities. If they decide later they want to go, it will be our fault they can't make it. 

And what's wrong with having educated mechanics, plumbers, welders, and truck drivers? 

Let's get back to educating kids as educators, even if other educators decide that's not our job.

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