College & Workforce Readiness

Questioning the College Route

By Anthony Rebora — June 08, 2011 1 min read
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Will Richardson resists the socio-academic orthodoxy that his children have to go the traditional college route to be successful. What’s more important, he argues, is that they begin to discover what they really want to invest their talents in:

What [schools] and me and your mom need to help you with is finding your passion, going deep into learning about it, becoming an expert, and then using that expertise to change the world and make a living. We need to help you learn how to cobble together your own education, and you don't have to wait until college to start down that road. And odds are pretty good that 10 years from now when you are looking to strike out on your own, your passion and your portfolio will take you as far if not farther than a degree that came at a great expense and in all likelihood with only a slice of relevance.

And yet, as Richardson himself notes, the current economic data for adults (particularly males) who have not completed college is not at all promising. (But then, it’s not that great for many of those who have, either, at least in the short term.)

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A version of this news article first appeared in the Teaching Now blog.