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'College is overrated'

School, school, school. That's all my life has been since I was born. Elementary school was fun, junior high was fun, but, man, high school has become a bore! Since Day One of high school, all I have been hearing is college, college, college. Do this so you can go to college. Take this class, it looks good for colleges. Every class I have taken so far in my school career is so I can get into a good college, so I can become successful and contribute to my country. Well, you know what? College is overrated.

Every year, starting Day One of senior year, students start freaking out about what school they want to go to. They start filling out applications and, basically, they become robots for about three months straight, focusing completely on filling out college applications. I filled out applications, I went into robot mode. I freaked out over this little thing that will cause me to be in debt the rest of my life, or at least the next 20 or so years of my life. Students and teachers put way to much emphasis on going to college. But then, when students don't get into a good school, they pretty much want their life to be over. But there are other alternatives that people don't realize. Community colleges are always good, and trade schools are always good as well.

In general, people need to stop putting as much emphasis on colleges and schools and worry about other problems our world faces today.

— Michael Andrew Bush lives in Oxnard.

Discussions

Posted by chair on August 24, 2008 at 2:29 a.m. (Suggest removal)

Mr. Bush makes a good point but seems to be wondering why. I'll tell him: College degrees from good schools make the selection process easier for human resource managers and also helps to assure job continuation for those HR managers should an employee fail on the job. Certification is what it's all about! It's much, much easier to rely on sheepskins than it is to actually test applicants' abilities, to ascertain applicants' diligence and honesty. As usual these days, bureaucracy trumps reason! If potential students want to test a school's worth, they should determine whether a school uses open book tests or relies on the old lecture recital system where only memory skills are challenged.



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