Adams - Class dismissed: why college isnt the answer

A POST HILL PRESS BOOK

Class Dismissed:

Why College Isnt the Answer

2019 by Nick Adams

All Rights Reserved

ISBN: 978-1-64293-067-2

ISBN (eBook): 978-1-64293-068-9

Cover art by Cody Corcoran

Interior design and composition by Greg Johnson, Textbook Perfect

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author and publisher.

Post Hill Press

New York Nashville

posthillpress.com

Published in the United States of America

To the American Originals, the dreamers,
the men who saw into the future and made it a reality.
Your legacy lives on and continues to inspire
new generations of Americans to reach for the stars.

Contents

My father, Andrew, was a mathematics teacher at Christian Brothers Fellowship in Sydney, Australia. He taught math to the Australian equivalent of American high school seniors. Despite the fact that Aussies have a reputation for being kind, wonderful, good-hearted, cheerful, and hilarious, my father would often get in arguments with his students.

The topics in question: college; careers. The future .

In addition to teaching very gifted, very polished kidskids who nailed their exams; kids who wore suits and ties to school; kids who were quite good at saying, Yes, sir and Yes, maam when it was called formy father also had students who werent that hot in math. Sometimes these not-so-good students would tell dad that they were planning on becoming a doctor, or a lawyer, or pursuing a well-paying, high-level, white collar career. Sort of a champagne taste on a plonk budget!

Dad, being a nice guy, would tell his students as tactfully as he could that maybe doctoring or lawyering wasnt a logical path, that maybe they should aim in a different direction. Not a dumbed-down direction, mind you, just different. His thinking was, if these kids were struggling with the level of math he was teaching them, their chances of succeeding in college pursuing high-minded careers were probably quite slim.

Even as a kid, I thought his approach was pretty cool.

Sometimes the kids would just end the conversation there, but once in a while, theyd get into a back-and-forth with dad, and he would say, Look, if I had it to do all over again, I would probably go and be a plumber.

At that point, the student would say, Um, what?

Thats a fair, logical reaction. As far as the students were concerned, Dad was a successful teacher. He was respected. He was probably making a nice salary. On one memorable occasion, a student blurted out, Youd rather be a plumber? Bullshit!

Dad would generally say something along the lines of, Yeah, I would have been a plumber or an electrician, but I wouldve preferred to be a plumber. See, the worst thing that I could do in plumbing was flood somebodys house. But if Im an electrician, and Im no good, I might end up electrocuting someoneor myself. With plumbing, the stakes are a little bit lower. (All legitimate points. My father is nothing if not practical.)

Unsurprisingly, the school administration didnt take kindly to those particular conversations. Thats a fair reaction, because if youre the principal of any school, youre measured in part by the success of your students. If your students dont go to college, but rather take up a tradeespecially a trade like plumbing that some might perceive as less than noble or impressivewell, you might not come off as the best school leader in the world.

The parents who heard about these conversations werent thrilled either. Theyd ring up the harried principal and complain that my father was killing the dreams of their tender children. Few parents want to have a teacher tell their child that theyre not cut out for college, and that they should consider becoming a plumber or an electrician.

Gasp! Oh my goodness! Heaven forbid that honesty (or plumbing) enter into the equation!

The whole idea is that taking up a trade like thatbeing a plumber, or an electrician, or a carpenter, or a welder, or a machinist, or doing any occupation that involves working with your handsis a fall from grace.

Thats understandable. That makes sense. After all, the Moms and Dads of the world are spending all this money to get their child educated at this good private school, and to them, a career in plumbing isnt a good return on a large investment. The parents want the child to be better than they are, to head off to college, to take on a high-profile job, to make a ton of money, to have loads of status in the community.

And lets be honest: it is, to some extent, about the parents. If the child goes to college and lands a law or medical degree, the mother and father can tell their friends and family, Boy, we raised that kid right. Hes got a good salary. She lives in a nice house. He has a nice car. She has a vacation home by the beach. Another reason: they dont want to hear about fixing leaky pipes.

Fair enough. But heres the thing. When youre visiting a doctor or a lawyer, its usually not for something good. You very rarely hear somebody saying, I have an appointment with my attorney because I just won eight-million dollars in the Powerball lottery, and I need to figure out how to maximize my wealth without getting thrown in jail. Its generally more along the lines of, I just got sued for plowing into a parked car, and my lawyer needs to help me not lose all my money in the lawsuit.

I dont know about you, but if somebody wants to haul me into court, I want my lawyer to be really good, really smart, and really slick. And if my lawyer is a guy whose high school math teacher told him, Youre not college material, that might not be the lawyer of my dreams.

And what about doctors? If theres even the slightest chance that my general practitioner barely skated by in high school and college and medical school, thats not a good thing either. If Dr. Whats-His-Name was a mediocre student, he might well be a mediocre doctor, and I dont want to get poked or prodded by a mediocre doctor.

All of which is why the entire continent of Australia owes my father a hearty thank you.

- - - -

This isnt strictly an Australian issuekids who shouldnt be attending college actually attending college. This is a problem throughout the world, especially in the United States.

Its an issue that I think about all the time.

Why? Why do I mull over the educational system? Im not currently teaching. As of this writing, I dont have any children. I went to a great college. I earned two degrees, and nabbed my bachelors degree in two years, rather than four.

Not only did I do well in college, I bloody loved it! But how could I not? I went from a private, all-boys boarding school that was very strict with lots of rules and limitations on language and behavior and clothing to a school where I could do whatever I wanted. University classes were all fine and goodI was always a good student, so there wasnt much in the way of stressbut my goodness, I loved the social antics. That was the real paperweight for me; that kept things interesting, even when the classes got dull.

Not only that, but my college education tangibly added something to me. Even today, I cant tell you exactly what that something issomething like that is almost impossible to quantify because often, you dont even realize the effect that something has on you until months or years, or decades later. But its something .