Being Held Back

"You're a full year older than me, what were you, held back as a kid?"

"What do you think about repeating this grade over again?"

When kids are growing up, they are given certain expectations to live up to.  Whether it's from their parents, their teachers, their coaches, or society in general, kids are looked upon to fill in the gaps that the older generations did not fill.  When a child is held in school, it is an indicator that that particular student needs more learning to understand the material given to them, or they are struggling too much at their current level. But after reading a couple of articles about students and parents in the current society, I'm beginning to wonder at what point parents start looking at their kids as a business instead of an expanding mind.

In the New Jersey Star Ledger, following this years NBA Draft, there were some reports about NBA prospects who had been held back in 8th grade, but no necessarily for academic reasons.  The article pointed out that many middle school basketball players are now repeating the 8th grade so that they can play like a 9th grader at an 8th grade level, thus padding their basketball stats and getting a better chance at a scholarship from a better university than their struggling counterparts, who are playing at their correct level of competition.

In fact, kids are begging their parents to be held back.

Now, I had blogged about how the education system in this country has fallen by the wayside and isn't nearly as robust as it used to be.  But I did not expect to see this kind of thing come along in our society.  I understood that colleges had scouted players in middle school and even went as far as having players and students commit to their university before entering the 8th grade.  I didn't think it would get this far.

The process goes like this: a student athlete is held back sometime in middle school, usually by a recommendation from the teaching staff, but in this case, most likely recommended by the parents.  The student-athlete gets another chance at playing middle school ball even though his body is now a full year in development ahead of the rest of the now current 8th graders.

Nerlens Noel, now an NBA player who was held back in middle school.

It is like putting a high school freshman back into his eighth grade math class and then seeing him outperform most of the students because he's already done all this work before.  Doing something the second time around does tend to be easier.  With his advanced talent and development that he has received from playing a lower level of competition, he now has made himself a visible athletic force for all the scouts watching him play.  It's like a group of 14 year old boys playing basketball with a 15 year old, people will notice which one is the 15 year old by how he's dominating the younger students.

When a scout sees this player doing as well on the court, the scout may approach the parents about a scholarship at a top-tier university.  'He seems to be outperforming his classmates, he will be great in our program, please sign on the dotted line' is what a parent might hear from a scout if they ever were encountered by one.  This is every parents dream; their kid is wanted by a great school and has the potential to have a brighter future.

Here's the surprising part: after the student moves on after 8th grade and enters high school, he can re-declare his grade-level based upon his academics.  Many parents even have private classes for their held-back students just so they can catch up and move back into the grade they were held back from, leapfrogging an entire grade if need be.  A quick side note, I did this in college when I had to take Spanish classes to complete my major requirements, so I took a test and tested out of 2 Spanish classes, thus saving me some time.  Now fast-forward to the student-athletes senior year in high school, he may be right at the age where he needs to be, or he may even be a year older.  He now has a scholarship to a top-tier university for athletics, probably has a chip on his shoulder, and without a doubt, has a much brighter future than his counterparts that weren't held back during middle school.

Something about this whole system of keeping a child back for athletic purposes doesn't seem right.  Right away, it means that the parents aren't necessarily looking out for their sons well-being as far as intelligence goes.  When you first find out about someone being held back, you think that it is because they struggled along the way or didn't grasp some concept.  It instantly becomes an indicator of potential weakness, but not in this situation.

Should parents be holding more and more of their children back if they see athletic potential in their kids?  Why is it that there is no other field that this is commonly preferred practice?  When a parent holds back a kid for academic reasons, it's because he or she didn't understand it the first time around.  No one has ever publicly stated that they held their son or daughter back in middle school so that they could get an edge in science.  It's almost as if we've put too much of an emphasis on sports, because we've incorporated them into our education system.

Here's an open ended question: do you think we would create a smarter or more gifted society if we were to allow an entire year be repeated by students.  One of the side-effects would be that there would be a huge gap between enrollment in one grade than the next.

Now I first about this from the Jalen Rose Report podcast on the Grantland Network, which can be watched and listened to here.  I did some Googling about this subject and decided that this is definitely not a common practice among young men around my neck of the woods.  I wonder if there is anything like going on other sports like Hockey or Football.  It would certainly break the whole talk about education wide open.  It's certainly a talk that we need to have in a large public forum.

Student Loans and a bullshit Education system

So in the last 3 years, basically since I left the education system in this country, the vast majority of people in the United States have noticed that Student Loans are a bigger problem than people originally thought.  Anyone that graduated around the year 2000 figured out that they were paying down their student loans for over 10 years.  Now, when you graduate from college, your creditors usually give you about 10 years to pay off the loans.

Think about that.

If they average person graduating from college was given 10 years to pay off something, they are about to turn 33 when they pay off their 4 year education.  10 years of earnings to pay off 4 years of learnings.  What is wrong with this picture?

This graph above shows that the education system has ousted Capital One, Mastercard, Chase, Visa, AMEX, and every other credit card company for being the burden on a 20-something's earning potential.  Now, what's interesting is that I was starting a job right around the time that these two lines crossed.  It's as if upon entering the workforce, everyone in the "adult" world woke up and figured out that anyone who graduated college or was graduating college in the coming years would be overpaying for the same education that was given in years prior.

This graph above is a graph that I remember seeing in my college class titled "Work, Jobs, and Income".  Surprisingly, none of those things actually get better after taking this class.  It was sort of like a cooking class where instead of cooking food, you'd look at the dirty dishes leftover from years ago and examined what was causing the fungus to grow so fast.  Now, what this graph doesn't show is that even though the high school graduate earns less over time from the college graduate, it does not factor in the costs of college.

Consider the fact, that college loans MUST be repaid.  They are never forgiven and must be paid back.  Suddenly, that blue line dips below the $0 barrier and puts you anywhere from $-15,000 in debt to $-200,000 in debt.  Now, I've heard sadistic stories of what kids are now paying for a college degree.  The fact that people are paying TWICE WHAT I EARN IN A YEAR is disgusting.  What's also disgusting is that more and more jobs are demanding a college degree that used to not require a college degree, thus forcing a vast majority of our future money-makers (aka kids) into getting these loans.

This graph above illustrates that there are even further financial benefits to getting a Bachelor's degree other than an Associate's degree.

If you are the kind of person that thinks, "well I'll just rise above the rest and get a Doctorate, an MBA, or a JD, or some other advanced degree, I have a task for you.  Step 1 is Go to Google.com or Bing.com for all you Bingers out there.  Step 2 is type into a search bar "Is An MBA" and look what comes up...

Now any idiot can tell you that an MBA is hard.  But what's shocking about all of this is that it's all brand new!  If you picked up a pamphlet that said "Is An MBA Right For You?" at a university, I would advise that you check the date at which it was printed.  MBA's are graduating and they're degrees aren't paying the same dividends that an MBA would pay 10 years ago.  So if you were to ask me, "Hey Mark, what do you think about getting an MBA?" I was say No, it isn't worth it.  I won't get into a top school.  I'd probably end up dropping out and wasting money.  Plus if everyone gets an MBA, won't I need to have something else that they don't have to be competitive?

There is one semi-solution to this overpaying for college degrees and advanced learning: STEAL IT!  Or find a way to learn for Free-Thousand dollars.  Khan Academy.  Codecademy.  Lynda.com.  The Library and $10 for late fees.  iTunes U.  I just listed 4 major learning portals that are pennies compared to a university's bill.  The picture above is Khan Academy creator Salman Khan.  I've been to the website and it's awesome that this exists.  Theories drawn out, explained in 10 minute videos, with little to no distractions.  Children are learning from Khan Academy at a young age.  Want to hear FREE lectures from Top tier Universities?  iTunes U.  Want to learn some software?  Lynda.com (it requires a subscription)  Want to learn how to build some apps for your iPhone and do coding for computers?  Codecademy.  Guess what?  ALL OF THOSE THINGS CAN MAKE YOU SMARTER AND RICHER!  I really wish I was wearing a suit with question marks all over it while yelling that.

After that tirade I feel like Will Hunting when he's arguing about Gordon Wood with the long-haired guy.

I hope you enjoyed.  Now if you excuse me, I have to go earn some money to pay down some debt.

Day 20: How Important Education Is...

Education.  How important is it to me?

Well, to be honest, not that important.  Why?  Well let me explain.

There are too many successful people who have made boatloads of money without going to college.  Lebron James, Alex Rodriguez, Kobe Bryant, Josh Hamilton, Leo Messi, Kevin Garnett, Sidney Crosby, Maria Sharapova, Rafa Nadal, Roger Federer, Cal Ripken Jr., Derek Jeter, Pete Rose, Babe Ruth, Hank Aaron, Pele, Wayne Gretzky, and Muhammad Ali all didn't attend college.  Think about that.  I didn't even mention the other tennis players and golf players who have made hundreds of thousands of dollars NOT sitting in a college lecture hall for 4 years.  Those names are also only Athletes.

Want more proof?  Bill Gates and Paul Allen of Microsoft, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak of Apple, Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook, Michael Dell of Dell Computers, Lilliane Bettencourt of L'Oreal, Ingvar Kamprad of  IKEA, and Christy Walton of Wal-Mart.  You can't look at this list and tell me that higher education will amount to vast wealth and success in the real world.

Now, what will amount to success in the real world is the aspect of hard work.  Every single one of those people figured out that they were good at something that didn't require an education and went out and got wealthy doing that one thing they were good at.

I certainly feel that educating oneself on certain things is a necessity.  But I don't know to what point we should stop educating people and teaching them certain skills that are no longer taught in a classroom.  Sewing, cooking, wood shop, metal shop, car maintenance, electro-tech and other very useful classes that are taught in classrooms are still done today.  It's just that we can't use test scores to validate the success of the students that take those courses.

In season 4 of the Wire, one of the police officers becomes a teacher and picks up on the fact that school districts can boost the test scores if they "juke the stats" :

It's this kind of politics in the education system that I do not like.  The warping of test scores so that districts can get more money.  This above all else is the worst part of the education system.  It's no longer about the finished product anymore.