Just a quick post to point you toward
Better Than College: How to Build a Successful Life Without a Four-Year Degree (students can even download an electronic version for free). It talks about many of the things I did in
this post, only it does a much better job. It also gives some reasonably concrete suggestions about how one might go about this. It's also short - 127 pages - so you could easily read it in a night or over a weekend.
I think many of you would be interested in this personally, as parents, as educators, or as policymakers (or some combination thereof).
To give you a taste, it starts with 6 propositions:
- College is just too expensive.
- Higher education and college are not the same thing.
- You can give yourself a higher education without college.
- Skipping college isn't the best idea for everyone.
- It's a gamble either way.
- There's a culture of fear around college, but it's the wrong fear.
Not only do I think you should read it, I really think every high school should have at least one copy on the shelves in the library - or in the guidance center. Really. (For those of you concerned about the reaction that might get in your school, note Proposition #4 above - he does a nice job describing many folks for whom college is a great idea.)
Some of you may also be interested in
Not Back to School Camp and/or
Unschool Adventures.
