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85% of Kids are Too Dumb for College? No Way!

If they look upset, they should be!

In my travels through the college news-sphere today I came across an article at the Chronicle of Higher Education titled “Are Too Many Americans Going to College?” At first I thought, here comes another diatribe about crowded schools and the merits of condensing college to three years.

However, this article went in a different direction entirely. It wasn’t asking what kind of college people should attend it was focused on whether certain people should even attend college and it gathered a bunch of higher education experts to discuss it. In the article there is a quote from a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, in which he states:

“It has been empirically demonstrated that doing well (B average or better) in a traditional college major in the arts and sciences requires levels of linguistic and logical/mathematical ability that only 10 to 15 percent of the nation’s youth possess. That doesn’t mean that only 10 to 15 percent should get more than a high-school education. It does mean that the four-year residential program leading to a B.A. is the wrong model for a large majority of young people.” What?!

What? Did he just say what I think he did? He’s claiming there is evidence that 85% of kids can’t do better than a B average at college and the reason is they are just not smart enough? It has nothing to do with the level of education or attention these kids get, they are somehow unable to learn and do better than a B average. Is he joking? We need to come up with alternatives to college for the 85% who are just too stupid to do well in school?

Seriously, you need to go read this article. Some of the things these so-called experts say will floor you. Most of them look at it as simply a numbers game and say nothing about the role quality in education plays in whether a student does well. This can be something that goes back to high school and before. Another panelist claims that college is only a good idea for the top 5% of high school graduates. Yet another points to doing a cost benefit analysis (from society’s point of view, mind you) and then says schools shouldn’t admit someone who they believe would be better off getting their AA or going to a specialty school. He even equates going to college as standing up at a concert…saying it’s selfish and we shouldn’t encourage it.

This is nuts!

Going to college is about taking on a goal, project, or dream. It’s about setting out on a journey, just like so many other things in life. Sure, some of us may get sidetracked or bogged down by the weight of our lives, but that’s part of the journey. Anyone can succeed, it often just depends on how each of them defines success. It’s about what you are committed to and how you follow through on your commitments. To say, as these panelists did, that college should not be open to everyone because there are some who are just inherently unable to succeed is incredibly short-sighted, negative, and destructive. More socially destructive in my mind having them “selfishly” attempt higher education.

Throw away the numbers, guys. As Twain said “There are lies, damned lies, and statistics.” The human spirit can function on a much higher level than they may be aware of and “giving up” on those who they decide are incapable will only make them more incapable. Build them up, tell these kids they can succeed if they work hard, stay determined, and adopt an unstoppable nature that everyone of us should have in abundance. We are up against ourselves, already–our stories and beliefs about who we are–we don’t need “scholars” contributing to our own negative self-talk. Especially since they don’t even take into account how these 85% have been educated.

Something tells me that given the right conditions, those 85% could easily get through college and graduate. That 85% could succeed in what they set their minds to no matter how much the supposed prevailing winds are against them. The language used in that article is so defeatist it’s frightening. it’s a surrendering to mediocrity and creates a class of people who have been told they won’t succeed and will accept it as fact.

What’s next? Who else do these scholars want to preclude from college? Are we all going to get IQ tests to determine what schools we attend? Who is going to create the test? Cause we all know how fair tests can be (read sarcastically). Is the level of our potential a matter of someone else’s determination? What happened to encouragement? I would hate being a kid to one of these scholars. Could you imagine the conversation you have with your dad?

“Hey, dad, I was thinking about becoming an astronaut.”

“Oh son, that’s probably not for you. Your math skills aren’t that good. You should take a desk job somewhere and just be happy. Society needs people like you. Why waste time trying to become something you’ll never have the ability to be?”

“But what if I study hard, dad. What if I really apply myself?”

“Sorry, kiddo. That really doesn’t matter. It’s just your nature to not do well. Don’t be selfish about it.”

Can anyone out there help me here? Am I seeing this wrong? Are the challenges we overcome in our lives not the things that make us stronger and more capable? This all sounds like a bad sci-fi movie about some future dystopian society where everyone is told by the government what they’re going to be for the rest of their lives. Ugh.