“Everybody is expecting me to be something big… this kid is going to be very successful – it’s a possibility that you will see him in the newspapers one day.”
–from Succeeding in the City
Listed as one of the key findings of the Penn study on the success of black and latino students is the universal factor of high expectations among successful minority students. I wonder if that idea may have an unexplored dark side or perhaps its value has become inflated in today’s job market.
We are living in a time where our nation’s youth is becoming more and more burdened by student debt accrued from pursuing higher education while being faced with a job market that does not reciprocate their efforts. It is a generation of students who were promised that a college education would open the gates to success, only to scrape by in low skill jobs or retail.
Now as a prospective educator I am not advocating against higher education but perhaps we should foster a youth that appreciates a wider breadth of success beyond the confines of an office cubicle or tech start up. Reports frequently come out with information on a shortage of skilled workers that often do not conform with the previously defined image of success. Meanwhile youth unemployment statistics are not exactly comforting. It paints a picture of a labor market in desperate need of people to fill it while we guide students away to markets that have no room for them.
To be fair, those with college degrees do still average out to earning more than those without by a not insignificant difference. But just as different people have different learning styles, perhaps we should be more open to the wealth of job opportunities outside of what we usually think of.