Should "College Ready" be the Main Focus of our High Schools?
Is the goal for every student to go to college? Is that a realistic goal? Is it the right goal?
Are there students who could or should be starting a business or non-profit right out of high school?
What if we provide an additional track in our high schools that provides students with the real skills they would need to start a company? Rather than going thousands of dollars in debt, and taking rhetoric classes; are there students who have the savvy, drive, and guts to make a go of it in the business world? What if students had the option to learn the soft skills as well as the basic business skills to make it happen. Imagine a high school where students learned all their content (math, science, language arts, and social studies) through the lens of the business student. What would it look like to have a geometry class that looks at supply and demand curves. What about looking at the history of capitalism and the social science of consumerism? How about applying scientific methodology to product development? Would such a school teach the concepts we are already teaching in high school, but in a way that prepares the student for a life in the business world? Finally, what if these students were paired with a mentor starting their freshman year with the goal of having a business plan in hand upon graduation? Would this be a successful school or should we keep sending every student to the debt factory...and those who don't get into college feel like a failure. Seriously, what are your thoughts?
Founder, Chief Transformation Officer, Crankset Group
5 年Great stuff, Stan.? I've been recruiting people to stop feeding the debt mills for decades. The Human Skills (soft?) are very measurable, and are exponentially more important than the Production Skills (hard?). Ex: Of 33 success variables, emotional intelligence is the strongest predictor of future performance. 90% of top performers have it, 90% of bottom performers don’t. Higher inducation (to induce, not educe) equips people w/ Production Skills, not Human Skills. Woops.
Food Security ◆ Access to Market ◆ Land Tenure ◆ Empowering women ◆Education◆ Entrepreneurial Skill Development ◆ Design & Production ◆
6 年A change maker in action!
Government Contractor
6 年Yes indeed !
Yes !!
Manager at Oakes Mfg. LLC.
6 年I find it interesting that on CSU's web site they talk about a 65% graduation rate and 84% of their graduates find jobs.? That is a way to represent the numbers in a way that make it look like CSU is doing a acceptable job.? What the numbers really mean is that 45% of the people that start a degree at CSU will fail and CSU truly only has a 55% success rate.? If my shop scraped 45% of the parts we made, how long would we stay in business.? If a plumber only fixed leaks 55% of the time how long would they stay employed.? I would love to know what the graduation rate and job placement is for truck driving school.? High school students need to know that their chances of success through a four year university are not very high.? They need to know that if they become a electricians apprentice that their chances of success are very high.