We have raised our kids very differently from the mainstream. We have home schooled since 1995. Our boys have excellent welding, auto mechanics and woodworking skills. I agree with you, Jacob, that our kids today are much more capable than what we expect of them and could be productive at a much younger age.

I think one can make a fair prediction of who will go where even at a young age. Looking back to middle school and comparing with reunions and I must say that I’ve had very few surprises in terms of what became out of people.

I strongly believe that most students are marking time simply to keep pressures of the job market. It’s not like people need to be as old as they are now. People just mature very slowly. Go back two hundred years and people made colonel at age 26. They commanded transatlantic ships at 22. They became professors at age 24. And those are just the hard ones.

Also the most commonly given IQ tests in the United States tests lots of verbal information too (that a math geek sort may or may not do particulary well on).

I agree that many people of high ability are marking time in the U.S high schools, but I also question if it is developmentally appropriate to just accelerate them right into PhD programs in physics just because we can. We all can do lots of things that are not good ideas.

Jacob, this is me giving you a standing ovation.

First, I think anyone agreeing with you wholeheartedly is an idiot. Your argument has no credible sources other than your anecdotes. Further, it attempts to convey its message using terms like ‘hard work’ ‘intelligence’ and ‘IQ’. Only ONE of those terms can be concretely and quantitatively described. And that term, IQ, has slowly been dismissed by the scientific community. It has about as much bearing on your success as your weight.

That said, I do agree that education in the US needs a lot of work. Degrees ARE gateways to corporate jobs. Many corporations, especially those that entertain the thoughts of sending employees overseas, demand at least bachelor degrees. Education cannot educate someone uninterested, as you said. But, for anyone that does pursue education, their efforts are not fruitless. Learning a higher level of reading, thinking critically, accepting different cultures and thoughts, these are all skills one can learn from a college. The question is, how many students really do obtain these skills? My bet is not many.

Example a Trained Assasin in the arts of biological poisions, weapon technology, fitness and flexibility, Military Stradegies, Herbal health, Rates and Angles, and economic isolation, for the past 5 years could control the world pretty easily, let alone a business or empire on the side.

The key is knowing yourself, however, that is hard early on in life. I’m an engineer with a bachelor’s and master’s. My master’s degree was done after having worked for four years – I am doing something I really like (have been for 20 years) and am fairly good at it. However, I wouldn’t have been able to do this effectively without the degrees. Yes, there are aspects I don’t use today, but it is a layered approach and there are analogies between the different fields. Without having been exposed to those areas early on, I might not have known to look in those areas. Additionally, engineering teaches a way of thinking that can be used in many situations.

I did go back and take some ‘social science-traditional liberal education’ classes at a community college later on in life. I did appreciate the different approaches to thinking and was better able to determine how it applied to my life after having some experience.

When giving advice, I usually tell someone that if they wish to go to college, try a community college first – to inexpensively determine what you want to do and get the ‘required’ aspects out of the way. If you know exactly what you want to do (be a pilot/doctor, for example), then there are programs to help you get there – actually there are many different paths to that end.

There is no shame in having a skill and owning your own business, either. In fact, that is probably a much faster way to becoming financially independent – if done correctly. Plus, the skills are needed – auto mechanic, plumber, etc, we are humans and there will always be a need to maintain the infrastructure – IT is another infrastructure/power (electrician) yet another infrastructure.

So, I agree with your premise, however, one needs to have a lot of self-awareness to make decisions early on – that is not common, so having the opportunity to go back later and get the education/skills to do what you truly want is important. If you know what you want early on, find the different paths that can get you there and embark on one, moving to the other paths if you neeed to.

This is basically what I had to do in my career anyway – pass the CPA exam. The stuff I learned in college helped, but I still had to study outside those classes. I easily could have skipped the middle-man (university) and studied directly for the test after high school.

I went to a liberal arts school, so I had to take plenty of non-business classes as well. I’m sure some of that stuff stuck with me, but my guess is I’ve learned more through independent reading which is minimal cost or free (yay for libraries). My appreciation of a good book or nice piece of art has nothing to do with what some professor lectured on.

That is a powerful statement for anybody who wonders why so many human interactions, like politics, aren’t rational. Well worth repeating a few dozen times per year!