A Jobs Mismatch discusses college-educated workers. The article also refers to Plan B: Skip College in the NY Times. The idea that schools are job training centers is widespread but this has not always been the role of public schools in the US.
That a BA can now be required of many jobs that used to require only a high school degree is a form of inflation, an idea I first encountered in The Future of Capitalism by Lester Thurow.
Homeschooling in the Philippines and another article on the Phillipines also rethinking the 12-year cycle for schooling. This last article is not unrelated to the above links where the extension of high school education to a BA, making it now 16 years of involuntary training.
The ever-increasing length of schooling is a topic among homeschoolers and the 8th grade graduation exam in Kansas has been circulating for years now often as a specimen of the dumbing down effect. The Smoky Valley Genealogical Society has this note about the exam on their site:
1895 8th Grade Exam
Salina, Kansas
Due to the continuous questions, emails, phone calls, and letters,
Smoky Valley Genealogical Society had decided to place a copy of
the 1895 8th Grade Exam on our website. Our society DOES NOT
have the answers to the exam.
Many people forget that Kansas is an agricultural state. 8th grade
was as far as many children went in school at that time. It was
unusual for children to attend either a high school or a normal
school because they were needed on the family farms. The names
of the children who took the exam and their scores are on file in
the Saline County Courthouse. Due to privacy concerns, SVGS
has chosen not to publish them. Many descendants of those who
took the exam still live in the Saline County area. The
descendants of the school superintendent, J.W. Armstrong, were
the ones who gave us our copy of the exam.
Times have changed, children have changed, and our world has
changed. This test was not put on our website to create
controversy. Rather it was put on because it gives us a glimpse
back in history at that time. There are other exams in other
counties that have been published. Our test seems to have created
more interest because it’s easily accessible via the internet.
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