SCHOOL DAYS - SCHOOL DAYS

A few years ago I went back to school. It was not for all the reasons in those “get-a-career” commercials on television. I’ve already had my time in the workforce. It was reasonably successful. I have no regrets, save for the feeling I have about never getting even an undergraduate degree.

But I wonder about all the sometimes-desperate folks who are attracted to the ads that promise a whole new life; that promise a career; that promise you can do it if you just pick up the phone.

I don’t know who goes to these highly advertised career and vocational schools. I have to believe that they are people who are highly influenced by media persuasion. That push, coupled with their own sense of failure, leads them to become dental assistants or pharmacy workers. They probably have found themselves, either in the position of having no income other than some government largesse, or perhaps in a dead end job that offers no chance for anything but survival – unless you are laid off.

I have no figures to prove it, but I am betting that if such figures were available, they would reflect a rise directly connected to the drop in employment possibilities. Recessions are good for “career” schools.

Recently, an article looking at all those schools found that many of them made high-pressure promises of guaranteed job placement and did not live up to the promise. The “prepare yourself for a high paying career...” enticement has pulled in some people I am sure, who have succeeded, but has also pulled in many hapless suckers, people grasping at straws. The article points to the enormous burden of debt, because these schools are not cheap, and to the hopelessness of a graduate not making enough money to repay the loans. There is, I am sure, some kind of legislation that protects people from themselves, and makes the schools reach some kind of measurable standard.

It may be a leap, but the attraction of these schools is not unlike the attraction of the multi-million dollar lotteries: a chance to hope. There must be something good happening because the schools seem to thrive and always find new students.

I know that universities and community colleges offer continuing education courses. They don’t come with job placement facilities, but they certainly must open people’s eyes to new possibilities.

It boils down to this: there are too many failed people in our society. There are too many who, at age sixteen, quit school, got a job, bought a truck, and thus achieved their “goals.” The so-called goals are a matter of aspiration, and aspiration – the urge to be better – is not easy to come by and certainly will not be fulfilled by a quick-study miracle offered on a TV commercial.