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> We stripped schools of anything that was vocational, or practical. What happened to shop and home economics... and the computer labs that got many of us started are long gone. Meanwhile we're short on plumbers, welders and all sorts of middle skill jobs...

I completely agree. The hollowing out of the education system in response to NCLB and the relentless drive for "data" and "standards" is why a lot of people no longer graduate from high school with any life skills.

Who cares about zero tolerance rules tho, just simply ignore them on the parent and adult level. My nephew was getting bullied and we told him the kid bullying him was simply just mad at his own home life and to ignore him. We also told him that if the bully attacked him first, he has 100% the right to punch him back.

Well well well, the bully cornered him in the school bathroom and attacked him. My nephew punched him in the face. my nephew got made into a legend at school and got suspended.

Guess who doesn't get bullied anymore? Violence works.

You can’t say that you can just not care about zero tolerance. I was the nephew in a similar story and was probably held back from membership in the National Honor Society because of the timing of the suspension, worsening my college applications.

>but if you defend yourself in a fight everyone gets suspended because of zero tolerance... it is obscene.

Zero tolerance, in it's current meaning, is stupid. But the original concept was great: if anything happens, then you respond to it. "Respond to it" including things like sitting down and talking about it, without necessarily issuing any punishments whatsoever.

I couldn't agree more regarding college education. Speaking as a member of the highschool graduating class of 2015, the pressure on every single child to go directly into college was insane. Even the mere act of telling an adult that you weren't interested in college could get you referred to a school counselor or called into an impromptu parent-teacher meeting. During my senior year, I was personally pulled out of class to discuss this topic on five separate occasions. I happened to be an unusually stubborn kid, but even I eventually caved and pre-enrolled at a local college.

Naturally, I almost immediately flunked out of the program. Who wouldn't quit something making them miserable when they didn't even want to do it in the first place? I was one of the lucky ones, actually... Many like-minded cohorts in my graduating class wasted years of time and money with nothing to show for it. They deserved adults who'd help pair them with the pathways that best suited their individual talents and risk tolerances -- not some blindly optimistic, cookiecutter college-for-all solution.

What about you, dear reader? Perhaps you're responsible for teenagers of your own... can you say with certainty that the adults in their lives have given them consistently honest and thorough conversations about the paths before them? I bet some parents would accuse me of being totally full of shit right about now... That's fine, I'm not some nostradomus bringing news of impending doom -- I only want the next generation to have things better than I did. If nothing else, it doesn't hurt to entertain the idea, right? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITwNiZ_j_24

> but we under fund public schools

Isn't the US in the top of funding per student? I think if anything we over fund public schools.

By what metric?

Teacher Pay?

Class room size?

Hours of education?

We may WASTE more money on students than other countries but in these metrics were behind and our below average everything makes that apparent.

> that there are now middle skill jobs (trained professionals but not college) that not only make more than those with degrees, they will do better over the course of their life because they dont have massive debt.

I don’t believe this. My first and second hand experience is that sure, there are some people who work blue collar and get paid better than $DESKJOB, but those are typically from wealthy households that can help them financially so they can ascend to owner.

If you are poor and start working in the trades it’s the status quo to be completely taken advantage of with no real opportunities. Expect to end each day beat-up and exhausted, with very little energy to take care of yourself. This is the poverty trap.

Blue collar is chock full of sociopath owners who actively lie, exploit, steal from, and emotionally manipulate their employees.