I'd very much like to know why you encourage all or most of your students to go to college.
Perhaps what we should really be doing is encouraging students not to close doors too early. When DH was in highschool, a counselor told him matter of factly that he wasn't ever going to go to college and steered him away from some key classes needed to be admitted to college (as he handed him information on enlisting in the military). DH had no interest in the latter and at the time took the counselor at his word regarding the former. When he determined that in fact he did want to go to college a mere two years later, he had to first enroll in a 2 year program that offered some of the courses required for college entrance. While he actually liked the two year college better (smaller class sizes relative to the giant lecture halls at the university we attended), it added to his overall college expense since he had to pay for courses he could have taken for free in highschool. In many ways it makes the most sense to me to counsel students not to close doors too early. As the world continually changes, it is unrealistic to assume that we know what the best opportunities for a student will be ten years down the line.
I have mixed feelings about college being/not being for everyone. It doesn't make sense to saddle people with debt to go in directions that minimize their talents. It doesn't make sense to deflate college expectations to make the classes more accesible to students who are less academically talented. But....I am uncomfortable with the sugar coated and skewed version of social studied taught in K12, which I think leaves adults unprepared to think critically about social policy and geopolitical policy/decision making. When I think about wanting people to go to college, it has less to do with their employment prospects than it does with wanting more of our total population to be more broadly educated. It seems like a lot of institutions offer either an associates degree program or a bachelors degree program. It would be nice if associate degree possibilities were the norm at four year colleges. Those breadth requirement classes could offer something a step above high school (for those who can handle those classes, but perhaps not the intermediate/advanced college classes) without expecting "everyone" to follow a route that may be either unsuited or unnecessary to their job propects. Just thinking aloud....
