I had 5 brothers & sisters, and not a single one of us went to college out of high school. It was never discussed. That was probably a blessing for me, because I would have crashed & burned at that stage of my life. Your last statement is an interesting one that I've thought of a lot in my life. We don't ask kids what they want to do when they grow up, we ask them what they want to be. That's a horrible disservice. Getting your identity all knotted up with your career is natural to an extent, but it's also self-destructive. It delegates your identity to the vagaries of the market. I've said before that I moved to this rural area and got to know folks, and I suddenly realize that I've known some for a period of time and I have no idea what they do to pay the bills. Back in DC your career and employer are the first things you learn about each other. But not in places like this. So there are pockets of sanity. There are still times I wonder how these folks pay their bills.
A congressman gave the speech to my youngest's graduating class. First he said there are all sorts of way politicians and others say "No". "I'll have to think about that." "That's a really good idea." "I'll bring that up at the next meeting." etc. All mean no. He also said he would bet that 60% or more of the class would go on not to use what they majored in in college.
Probably not, but this goes to my statement that all knowledge contributes to who we are as a person. It all goes into the mix. To take the position that "you'll never use it" empowers every high school kid who loathes history, or algebra, or science, or literature, etc. "I'll never use this."
I told all 3 of my daughters to make their passions their careers. You should always love and feel purpose in what you do to make a living. The worst thing to me is getting up every morning and going to a job you hate. I'm happy to say all my daughters did take this advice to heart and they all are using the gifts God has blessed them with.
I have to admit I'm one who was certain I'd never use geometry and algebra in real life. But there is a sort of practical geometry in playing pool, which I did a lot as an after work sport years ago. Still waiting for algebra to have any practical use, although if I want to be generous, I might say it taught a certain way of approaching non-math problems. LOL
I find it interesting that, invariably, education is equated with degrees. A degree simply documents that you have completed a specified program of study, and large numbers of people need to have that degree hanging on their wall because you wouldn't know they were educated, otherwise. Sometimes, that's all that someone gets from their education - a piece of paper. As to the point of filing a lawsuit against a college or university because one was unable to find work in a particular career field, I don't think their chances of being successful are high, but I can understand it, depending on the circumstances. When someone can spend twelve years in high school and four years at a university and still not learn anything useful, some form of redress might be reasonable. Of course, then we'd have to get into the important matter of whose fault it was, and the likelihood that other people have completed the same course of study and been successful in their chosen field. This is why I don't think the chances of such a lawsuit being successful are high.
The only courses I haven't used in real life were calculus. All the other sciences, math courses, humanities, etc. If I had followed another life, I would have used it a lot, but Vietnam got in the way....
Before I changed my undergraduate major to German I had taken four semesters of math for engineers, including calculus. I don't know if I ever used the latter, but I'm sure glad I know it's there.
No. My first high school had Regents courses- I took most of them. My second high school had college courses, which I also took, for students who had completed all of the regular English courses.
I grow up in a country where HS -the five years- were oriented to enter college 1) Bachiller in Liberal Arts, 2) Bachiller in Accounting, 3) Bachiller in Technology, 4) Bachiller in Education.
When I went to school, the were three categories: Academic (college-bound), Business (accounting and small business entrepreneurs) and General (mechanics, carpenters, farmers). Everyone was happier under those rules but they were removed due to some equal opportunity initiative, so now everyone is mixed together and everyone is unhappy and the quality of education has been lowered dramatically.
We had what was called "academic" and "commercial". Academic was prep for further education after graduation and commercial was prep for business. I ended up in academic.
Our school also had 3 tracks: College Prep, Commercial, and Vocational. College was never mentioned in my house. I wanted to go only because my girlfriend planned to go. Our 8th grade counselor said I'd never make it through algebra and Latin, and should take the Commercial curriculum. He scared the wits out of me. It worked, because I ended up doing well in algebra and Latin. But not so well in the other courses.