Many teens shy away from college — and work
Marjorie Cortez
My meager part-time earnings paid for clothes, 8-track tapes and eating out.
My co-worker Liz used her meager full-time pay for food and shelter for herself and two children.
She had a sunny disposition, which often surprised me given her financial straits and the responsibilities of single parenthood. Still, she often counseled, "Don't end up like me."
It wasn't that she regretted marriage or motherhood. It was that she had so few work skills that when her marriage went south the only job she qualified for was working at a fast-food restaurant. She often preached about the importance of finishing high school and, better yet, going to college.
As someone who had earned a doctorate degree in the school of hard knocks, her words resonated with me. Frying chicken for Colonel Sanders was a decent job for a high school student. It wasn't a meal ticket for a family.
Perhaps Liz should counsel today's teenagers. A growing number of them are not entering college upon graduating from high school. In Utah, the percentage of high schoolers entering college within a year of high school graduation has dropped slightly since 2003. The system of higher education experienced a 4 percent drop between 2006 and 2007.
What is it with kids today? Why don't more of them want to go to college? Why don't they crave the college experience? Don't they want to challenge convention or be prepared to compete in the real world? Do they not comprehend the huge gulf in lifetime income potential between someone with a high school education, a college degree and a graduate degree? Or is a college education simply not affordable to a growing number of students?
One of my great fears is that we, as a nation, have lost our spirit of competitiveness. Earlier this year, I watched a part of the Geography Bee at my daughter's elementary school. My friend, Del, whose daughter was in the competition, observed that the bee was one of the very few contests in elementary school in which one student is singled out as the winner.
He's right. Now, every child is "special." We're told not to keep score in recreational T-ball or soccer. Every child is presented a medal or trophy at the end of the season, deeming them a "valuable player."
Sheesh. How did we get to this place?
Was the world so cruel in the previous generation that we don't want kids to suffer the indignity of being chosen last for basketball or losing the school spelling bee?
Recent comments
It is not how much a kid earns so much as learning work ethics....
jr | March 4, 2008 at 8:55 p.m.
Lewt, not only are the wages depressed, but the jobs are hard to...
Stewart | March 4, 2008 at 8:11 p.m.
I didn't say not working was a good choice, but at $6 an hour...
Lewt | March 4, 2008 at 6:51 p.m.
