Preventing Diploma Abuse

Column 2017-14 (4/24/17)

Abuse prevention is much in the news. Certainly there is plenty of abuse to be eliminated. Still, I was surprised to read of an abuse that had never crossed my mind. How could I have missed it? How did so many others miss it?

 

Chicago mayor, Rahm Emanuel, is leading the charge to prevent diploma abuse. We can now add diploma control to gun control as a hot school issue. Chicago’s plan doesn’t yet require a permit to carry a diploma. I’m sure there will be time for that later.

I’m not sure how Chicago discovered graduates were abusing their diplomas. Give credit where credit is due. Results, not methods, are what matters most.

After years of urging everyone to earn a high school diploma, Chicago has discovered that graduates need government guidance on how to use that diploma. Believe it or not some graduates might actually use a diploma to get a job. If graduates can get away with using a diploma to get a job, What next? Will they find a way use a diploma to get drugs?

To get a diploma the student must provide proof of acceptance by: 1) A four-year college; 2) A community college; 3) A branch of the armed services; or 4) A trade school or program. That is it. There are no other options.

No where does it say the student must participate in his chosen option. Community colleges accept just about anyone. The student can gain acceptance, collect his diploma, and then skip college. Why should the student have to jump through the hoop? Why should colleges be bothered to process applications from students who have no intention of enrolling?

It is the height of arrogance for government to pretend to know best how a graduate should use a diploma. With 18 million or so recent college graduates unable to find jobs in their field of study, it is ridiculous to be pushing more into college.

For many jobs on the job training is the best way to learn a skill. Yet government pushes individuals into formal education and debt. At the same time minimum wage laws prevent trainees from accepting low wages while learning. Any wage is better than no wage plus debt.

While on the subject of schools this seems to be an appropriate time to revisit the silliness of zero tolerance. In case you missed it, zero tolerance is still thriving. Its implementers apparently are immune to embarrassment.

A five years old girl was suspended from school for pretending a stick was a gun. A four years old boy got the boot for having an empty .22 caliber shell casing. Perhaps the zero tolerance enforcers felt the need to demonstrate that they are gender neutral.

When I was in school it didn’t bother anyone when I bought ammunition during lunch time, brought it back to school, and took it home on the bus. Maybe it was a bit over the top when we used real hand guns on stage in our senior play. No one complained though, including the teacher directing the play.

If anyone did this today the school would be locked down and attacked by a SWAT squad. Life was simpler in the age of dinosaurs.

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Copyright 2017

Albert D. McCallum