Blog #15

When I just went to my Blogs, my number 15 was not there. I have had some difficulty with my computer the last few weeks. So here is my 15.

My brother was the student in high school 20+ years ago who would have a learning difficultly in reading. He always struggled when it came to reading any material; he was a slow reader and would struggle with all the rules of the English lang. He did enroll at NDSU and completed 3.5 years of college but dropped out (he never declared a major). When he was there, his grades were A-C's. I asked him why he would drop out, he had decent grades. His response was, I struggled everyday at class and could not keep up; Michelle (his girlfriend at the time) would do the work in a few classes for him. My brother works in the construction field and is great at what he does. He is a hands on learner and when he learns something, he never forgets it. Eric never had a teacher in elementary, junior high, or high school take time to figure out the best way he learned; he struggled in school. Eric is taking a three week course at a community college for three different certification for construction (one week is wind, one week is solar, one week is something else) He is worried that even though he has these certificates, it will not be enough for him to get the better job without a college degree. I tired to re-assure him that it is not just a college degree that people do look for, but how you "sell" yourself in an interview, and your portfolio. He is stressed that he is doing this for nothing that employers will not consider him for a job because he does not have that paper that says he completed a degree.

My question for you as educators is how do we get those students ready for the "real" world who are college bound or even community college bound. We tell our students that they should go to college, that they need that degree to get a job, but what about those students like my brother? College is not for all. Some students need to go straight to work for different reason; some because they need to make money for their family and other like my brother, college was not for them. Should these people be punished of not being able to move up at their job, or apply for and hired for a job that they can do but don't have a degree in? Some of the my friends are extremely intelligent and do not have a degree while other who do have degree are not as smart as they think they are. Degree's (in my opinion) do not equal brains.