My preface to what follows is important, so I want to be clear. This is not an argument against college education as useless. One could argue that in its current state, it's mostly useless, but until the tide turns completely, there will be a place for college degrees for those who would work in fields not included on Dirty Jobs.
However, having been well provided for by a father who worked dirty jobs all his life, I am not opposed to young people eschewing the very expensive and mostly useless college degrees being conferred over the past 20 years.
This is not a place where you'll read about how important it is for every young person to receive a college education. One of the reasons my position on this is growing exponentially strident is because of pieces like this one:
So young men are increasingly rejecting college. The first young man featured has reasons that were clear and logical. We live in the state where the beginning of air conditioning was invented. It's hot down here, and we appreciate the value of a good HVAC technician. The trades are the honest, useful, necessary work that keeps our civilization humming. Those who turn up their noses at the prospect of their own sons doing blue collar work forget how important it is to have access to a competent plumbers, mechanics, and electricians. They are so used to their garbage magically disappearing from the curb, on schedule, for decades, that they never stop to consider what life would be like if there suddenly were no men to pick up their trash.
The point of the above video was to explore why fewer and fewer young men are enrolling in college, and what, if anything, can be done about it. There are a few pioneering men in the piece who are actively working to increase the numbers of young men in college. They don't want them to simply enroll, but they want to give these young men an enhanced, productive, and fruitful college experience.
But wait! We have to be careful with this lest the women are harmed! The reporter actually asked, with straight face:
How do you craft a program that works to help men that doesn't come at the expense of women?
Read that again. Let it sink in for a minute, and consider all that the question implies.
A few scattered professors, for the crime of noticing that our education system is failing men and boys, are coyly warned to be careful not to harm women by helping men. The idea that anything that is good for men is bad for women is deeply ingrained in leftist thinking. It's so deeply ingrained that they are willing to toss entire generations of boys and young men out onto the landfills of life so to insure that women stay ahead in an education dominated by women.
And when these gals are old enough to marry and ask, "Where have all the good men gone?", no one will have an answer. My strong suggestion to every mother of sons is to yank your kids out of the public school system as fast as you can, and don't let these people convince you that your son's only path to a good life is four years of leftist, femininist indoctrination. This brings me to my final point.
Meet Bryan Orr, president and founder of Kalos Services in north Central Florida.
We met Bryan Orr at the FPEA conference a few years ago. At that time, he was a 38-year-old husband and father of 10 kids. He was homeschooled by his parents and he and his wife were homeschooling their own kids. Mr. Orr was brought in to offer homeschooling parents and families ideas for educating their kids after high school which may not include going to college. If you clicked the link, you just read that his company is highly successful and doing quite well. He also runs a school to certify young men (and women!) as HVAC technicians, where afterwards they can work for his company.
Of course, not every young man who goes into the trades will reach the heights of success of Bryan Orr. But many if not most, will do as well as, or better than, they would have done in college. What's more, they will do so without incurring debt for themselves or their families.
I've been around enough young male students to know that there are some who are genuinely suited to the intellectual, classroom environment. They will do well in college. However, I would argue that it's not the case for most, and given that the system in its current state is uniquely designed to cut against the masculine grain, I'm actually glad to see that more young men are contemplating other paths.
The college bubble must burst for the sake of young men and young women alike.
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