Uncertain Steps

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Day in San Francisco.  Been planning it for months.  Week long family vacation.  For many, San Francisco’s weather in the 50’s isn’t exactly balmy, tropical weather to look forward to.  If you live in the Midwest however its a pretty welcome relief from the freezing temperatures that seem to last half the year.

We’ve been to San Francisco before but didn’t plan ahead quite as well so were unable to take in some things last minute because of tickets being unavailable, etc.

This year would be different.

Began planning in October.  Airline tickets for everyone.  Seats all together on the plane.  Tickets to everything we wanted to see … Alcatraz, Tony ‘n’ Tina’s Wedding, a performance of Wicked, and Cirque de Soleil.

Since October we’ve been expecting Christmas Day to look something like this …..

Instead its looking like this …

Not only will we not make it to California on schedule, likely miss some of our schedule activities, but I’m 200 miles from home and will more than likely not even see my kids on Christmas Day!

Should I be surprised?  Middle of the winter in the Midwest.  A snowstorm isn’t exactly a rare occurrence.

As the plans change by the minute it reminds me of the earlier post I wrote about expecting teens to make plans for the next 20 years.  The likelihood of something changing those plans is about as likely as a snowstorm screwing up a Christmas vacation from the Midwest.

Instead of worrying so much about helping our kids make ONE big decision about what they are going to do with their life, we should be spending more time teaching them how to effectively manage change.  To deal with all the crap life throws in the way of plans.  Be able to change plans as needed.  Not to every obstacle that is thrown in the way…those can be surmounted.

Rather change as a result of changes that happen to you and changes that happen within you.  Life isn’t a straight path from high school graduation to retirement.  It turns.  It twists.  There are bumps.  At times you get stuck in snowstorms and need to work through them.  At times you take the wrong road entirely and have to find a new way.

Those are the things we should be emphasizing to our kids.

It appears that maybe I’ve been proven wrong!

Shortly after posting my opinion here that money is unlikely to be the primary cause of college dropouts, Public Agenda releases the findings of their survey, sponsored by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, of more than 600 young adults with SOME college credits.  According to the results of that survey released in a report called “With Their Whole Lives Ahead of Them,” one of the most common reasons given for dropping out of college was the need to maintain a job to afford college and the stress associated with juggling both their studies and work.

This seems to poke a hole in my theory that finances is not a good excuse.

Considering this was a pretty reputable source of information, even I was beginning to question what I said earlier.  No doubt times have changed.  The cost of education is all over the news.  Certainly college tuition has increased at a rate far above that of wages. Maybe I was wrong and I’ll be the first to admit it when I am.

This morning I was reading the book “On Writing,” bestselling author Stephen King’s memoir. He recounted his years of education and described that period of time as:

“…up at seven, off to school at seven-thirty, last bell at two o’clock, punch in on the third floor of Worumbo at 2:58, bag loose fabric for eight hours, punch out at 11:02, get home around quarter of twelve, eat a bowl of cereal, fall into bed, get up the next morning, do it all again.”

This was around 1968 or 1969.  More than 30 years ago!  Some things haven’t changed.

He certainly isn’t unique in having a difficult road to get to where he is. Nor does he claim to be. It’s just his story and was only a coincidence that I read it at a time where I was thinking about these survey results. Many of us can probably recall our own similar stories including me. Living in a run down 500 square foot apartment shared with 2 others that I had never met before.  Furniture?  Found a couch by the dumpsters.  Afternoons spent cleaning rat crap out of the bottom of cages in the research labs to help supplement the thousands in student loans that were accruing.

Was it a big sacrifice?  Not hardly.  It was just part of the deal.

I’m sure there are many that read this and say “Yeah, but…”  and follow with their own particular special circumstance that makes them (or their son or daughter) different than the rest.  And without a doubt some are different.  There certainly are some situations that make financing a college education more difficult.

But for most, it’s about a lack of PURPOSE. Not “purpose” as in a lifelong, bigger-than-self, reason for being on this earth.  “Purpose” as in a reason WHY we do something.  And if the only purpose to a college education is because it just seemed like the right thing to do because everyone else was, there is a pretty good chance that the “stress” of making it happen can get to be too much.

I was talking to my 15 year old daughter last night about some of her interests and possible directions they could take her … music teacher, counselor, working with youth in some manner.  About half way through the conversation I began to realize how I just assume that my own kids will choose career directions that will involve a 4 year college degree … AT THE VERY LEAST!

After spending hours reading, researching, and writing some of the previous posts about college dropout rates, you would think I, of all people, would be a little more open minded to the other possibilities. But that will be another parents child that is dropping out…not mine!

I can’t imagine I’m unique thinking that way.  Most of us as parents have high hopes for our kids…getting a good education, a degree, and rolling right into the job of their dreams. Regardless what the statistics say, none of us expect that OUR children will be one of them that won’t make it.

Where do we get the idea that a 4 year degree is the “Golden Ticket?”  Why do we think that a college education is the ONLY way our children can be successful?

Beyond just the stigma of deciding NOT to go to college, the media has done a good job of painting a pretty gloomy picture of the future for those who decide not to and instead get a technical degree, an online certificate, or open a business of their own.

Countless articles and interviews compare the lifetime income of someone with a bachelors degree versus someone with only a high school diploma. The actual dollar figure may vary.  Census Bureau at one time thought $900,000 over a lifetime.  Other sources have said anywhere from $800,000 to just over $1 million.  The exact dollar amount doesn’t matter.  A million bucks is pretty convincing. Passing that up seems like passing up a winning lottery ticket.

And if income isn’t the primary concern when choosing a career, many articles, websites, and books will give a whole list of other reasons why a 4 year degree is important.  That list is long…

• longer life span

• healthier

• greater job satisfaction

(and then the list starts to get a bit off track)

• greater use of seat belts

• greater Internet access

• less criminal activities

(I won’t even list some of the rest that seem completely off track)

Even if we don’t include some of those that really seem questionable, who doesn’t want a better quality of life for their kids (and themselves?)  Who doesn’t want to give their children the best chance of a longer healthier life?

Before assuming that this information is accurate, it’s important to consider whether these “lifestyle improvements” listed above are actually a direct result of the degree itself.

Simply showing that those who graduate with a 4 year degree have, on average, higher salaries doesn’t really prove WHY that is.  That is a bit like saying kids who play college basketball are, on average, taller when they graduate than other kids, so if you want to be taller you should join the basketball team.

I don’t doubt the fact that those with the intelligence to obtain a bachelors degree, AND with the discipline, persistence, and ambition to finish, will, on AVERAGE, earn more during their lifetime. Isn’t it possible that a majority of these same people, ON AVERAGE, would have done that anyways?

Just so there is no misunderstanding, I am in no way AGAINST college education.  In fact, my personal career and that of my entire family has been through years of college education.  And it worked well for us.

It just seems to me that instead of shoving the “one path” down their throat as the only real chance of success, we should be encouraging our kids to explore a wide variety of different career directions FIRST.  Make decisions based on their own personal interests and passions.  THEN determine the best steps to make that happen, whether that be through a college/university degree, technical education, or a variety of other programs.

This is the last in a series of posts discussing the various causes of a high percentage of young adults who start with the goal of getting a college degree and end up falling far short of that.

In previous posts, we discussed lack of financial resources and/or academic skills as likely reasons why there is such a high failure rate. But both of these are at least partially related to what I believe is the most frequent cause. Poor planning.

Students do very limited exploration and planning for their future until it’s about time to make a decision. As they get to their senior year of high school, everyone (including themselves) starts putting on the pressure for an “answer.”  Struggling to come up with anything, they eventually just pick something or just follow everyone else off to college because that is supposed to be the best route.

They enter college with no direction or focus thinking maybe they will stumble on to something once they are there.  Occasionally that happens.  Usually it doesn’t. Eventually either they get frustrated and quit or their parents pull the plug on financial support because they see no progress towards a degree or even a general field of study.

What’s the answer?

Most importantly, teenagers need to start exploring possible careers earlier. Not so that they can “narrow down” their choices sooner, but so they can expand their thinking.  So they can BROADEN their list of options and have the time to explore them more thoroughly.

Teenagers (with the help of parents and educators) need to do a better job of:

• Assessing themselves; their strengths, interests, beliefs, and values

• Recognizing that they have limited exposure to the world and realize with their limited experiences they can’t possibly have be able to sit and think harder and come up with the answer to “What are you going to do with your life?”

• Utilizing what they do know to create more experiences.  This increased exposure to the world will enhance their creative thinking, giving them MORE options to explore…rather than NARROW the choices.

Unfortunately instead of doing this, we have them take a few skills inventories.  Maybe fill out a personality profile.  Then label them or give them a list of the top 10 careers they should consider. Until both teens and parents begin to realize that there is never going to be a single program that is going to kick out the perfect answer for them, the statistics will remain about the same…or worse.

This is the third part in a series of posts discussing the million teens each year attempting college and quitting before ever obtaining a degree.

The last post discussed the likelihood of finances being a legitimate obstacle, or if it only became an obstacle when the student had no real desire or direction. The second potential cause of such a low rate of success in college that was discussed in the introduction to this series was that students were entering college without the necessary skills to be successful in college level courses.

Kenneth Gray, professor in the College of Education at Penn State University addressed this particular topic in the book  “Getting Real: Helping Teens Find Their Future,” Some of the statistics relevant to this topic summarized in the book were:

“Nationwide assessments of academic skills, such as the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), suggest that only 40% at best, graduate from high school with the academic skills to do real college-level academics.  Because only a few hundred of the nations 4-year colleges admit 70% or more of all applicants, having poor academic skills is no longer a barrier to getting into a 4-year college; however, it is still a barrier to graduation.  Students who graduate from high school without completing mathematics through Algebra II, taking 2 years of the same foreign language, taking two laboratory sciences, and having a B average and combined SAT scores of 1100 or ACT 22 are at risk.  The Higher Education Research Institute reports that students who enter college with a C average are six times more likely to drop out as those with an A average.  Those with combined SAT scores of 800 or less are three times less likely to graduate than those with scores of 1000 or better (Gray & Herr, 1996).”

And what is the answer to this?  Remedial programs.  Let just about everyone in … even those who have demonstrated that they lack the necessary skills … and then put them in remedial courses (creating even more expense) before they start courses leading toward a particular degree.

Only about half of ALL students that start in a 4 year college are ending up with a degree, and this INCLUDES all of those that are very well suited for college level academics.  What percent of those going through remedial programs could possibly survive and end up with a degree?  1 out of 10?

I haven’t been able to find any statistics on the success rate of  college remedial courses.  Hopefully, someone has this data and will prove me wrong.

Remember that these are just statistics.  Averages.  We all know of examples of more than a few who have beaten these odds.  Students who were mediocre, at best, in high school that didn’t just survive college.  They excelled.  They excelled as a student.  They excelled in a related career after college.  Why?  Because they found a particular field in which they had great interest, that matched their skills, that they became passionate about, and committed themselves to studying, learning, and practicing every aspect of it.

On the other hand, I probably know more examples of the opposite situation.  Extremely intelligent high school graduates who had both the high GPA and above average SAT/ACT scores who were never able to achieve post-secondary success. They had no particular direction in mind, and were relatively lost about their future.

Hopefully students and parents will begin to recognize the odds and how they might be stacked against them. Gray’s book title puts it pretty bluntly… “Getting Real.”  Being realistic about their skills.  Being realistic about where their true passions are.   Being realistic about whether they have the drive and motivation to overcome the fact that they fall short of what the statistics say is necessary to succeed at college level courses.

Parents may have more difficulty accepting the reality than the students.  I had a conversation a couple weeks ago with the former high school principal that worked with my father during his years of being a guidance counselor.  He could recall many occasions in which they would discuss various students (and their parents) who needed to “get real” but it was impossible to convince the parents that their child was not capable of surviving college.  Only when a parent was concerned enough to ask could they really get across that there were other options better suited for their child’s interests and strengths.

What do you think?  Is having less stringent academic requirements for admission giving more people opportunities?  Or is it setting more of them up for an expensive failure?