College Is Not for Everyone

I can't tell you how much it burns me up when I hear people saying this. Or when I see articles to this extent. It gets under my skin. Why?

It's not because it's not true. Yeah. College isn't for everyone. And I agree that we should invest more in highly skilled tech jobs, etc. And people should follow their hearts, etc.

What gets me is that it seems to me, by and large, that the people who are saying this are themselves college educated white-collar professionals whose own children will most certainly be attending a fine university.

What gets me is that it smacks of elitism.

The people they are referring to who aren't meant to be attending college will end up being the kids who have never had any advantages. They will be the kids from low income families. They will be the kids who never had someone help them with their homework. They'll be the kids who went to inner city public schools and didn't get to do extracurricular activities. They'll be the kids who are on the school lunch program and on food stamps. They'll be the kids who are the ones who need a college education to lift themselves into the middle class.

Sure, there will be good paying jobs for them after their vocational school training. Certainly there will be. But these jobs don't pay quite as well as a nice white-collar job do they? As much as a columnist or pundit claims that his plumber makes more than him, we all know that's bullshit. The plumber doesn't get the perks you get. And when he gets arthritis and can't work any more, well there goes his income... Too bad he doesn't have a college degree to fall back on.

People who say "College isn't for everyone". They're talking about other people's kids. They just want to make sure they have a working class under them doing all the shit they don't want their kids to do.