Tiffany Kern As a high school senior student taking dual enrollment classes, I have come to conclusion that college

isnt for everyone. High school and college are two completely different things. The teachers, homework, class times, and people are different. I have carried a 4.0 GPA throughout my high school career. The college dual enrollment classes has become more of a struggle than I ever imagined. This showed me that grades arent everything and they dont measure success. College is for people that want it. Some students go to college just to go and for the wrong reasons. College is for students who can learn in different ways and think beyond what they read. The only way to do that is through transformative learning. I know college is for me because I set my goals and know what I want to do. My parents always thrived for me to go to college. I thought it was just what was expected of students after high school. The dual enrollment classes told me different. I saw a whole different side of college than just what high school and my parents have been preparing me for. I love the fact that Im taking college classes early because it showed me that success isnt measured through grades and that learning is more than just preparing for a test. I learned that college is for those who seek to learn, not just get the A. Getting the A can be done through studying hard and memorizing. Learning the actual material and putting it with experience is a lot more. Jack Mezirow who is emeritus professor of adult education at Columbia University, couldnt have said it better with the article he wrote. Mezirow wrote an article called, Transformative Learning: Theory to Practice which implies that transformative learning is the key to open a world of understanding. According to Mezirow, people have a frame of reference in which they base the world off of (Mezirow, 268). He is saying that people reject ideas that do not abide by their frame of reference. Mezirow states that

frames of reference can be changed through critically reflecting ones own assumption (Mezirow, 269). To achieve transformative learning and change ones own frame of reference, they need to think autonomously. To think autonomously means to take the short term objectives apply them to short term goals as well as to recognize both (Mezirow, 271). The object of thinking autonomously and changing a persons frame of reference is so people can correctly learn and reach their full potential. Once a student realizes this, they can apply it to all aspects of education. To do takes hard work, dedication, and an open mind which proves that college isnt for everyone because some kids only go to school to get the A. Getting the A is important, but to some extent. According to Lauren Schuhmacher, who is a college student at Kings College majoring in media, culture, and art and minoring in literature, says ..caring to much about grades, most students are missing the point of education (Schuhmacher,1). Some students go to college to get good grades but dont value the education or what they are learning. This goes with what Mezirow says, because Schuhmacher is saying students go to college with no intentions of changing their frame of reference of to think autonomously. Students just want to make money and they dont care about the education they are receiving. According to Schuhmacher, Grades dont define us: what defines us is the change education makes within us (Schuhmacher, 1). Students that dont value education would have no use in going to college. Its a waste of money especially if they dont expect to learn and just expect to get good grades. According to W.J. Reeves, an English professor at Brooklyn College, Higher Education is very expensive, taxing the resources of the already overtaxed, middle-class family (Reeves, 344). Reeves has had students come back and say they wish they would of done things differently because they wasted all that money for college and didnt value education. Not everyone is going to value

education. There is a lot that comes with college that some people cant nor want to do. According to Reeves, College is not for students who have emerged from high school neither literate nor numerate, with cultural focuses revolving around hip-hop and body piercing and with zero interest in changing their behavior (Reeves, 345). Everyone is has different goals, lifestyles, interests, and hobbies. College is for the driven and motivated kids who want to learn and improve their skills. College has just became the big thing, according to Thomas Reeves who is a well published U.S/ historian and a veteran of forty years of college teaching. He states that kids go to college in the thought of making lots of money (T. Reeves, 346). Parents send their kids off to college and think they are being responsible and setting them up for a good life when a lot of them dont have the drive or intelligence to succeed which leads to failure and a waste of money. This goes with what W.J. Reeves stated. According to Thomas Reeves, there are alternatives to college that students could do and still make a decent amount of money and actually learned things and didnt just go for the A (T. Reeves, 347). College may not be for everyone, but there are still alternatives and opportunities for high school graduates. Lawrence B. Schlack, who is in the American Association of School Administration, states that he has seen a lot of high school graduates go to college in the fall and be home by winter. This just proves college is not for everyone just like W.J. Reeves and Thomas Reeves stated previously. Kids go to college and drop out right away, change majors, drop classes, start over, or end up dropping after all that and racking up the debt with no degree (Schlack,1). According to Schlack, students have been told, college is their only option and they are using their experience as a very expensive and often futile form of career exploration. Kids think they need college to be successful in life and to amount to anything. They are told the

only way to land a good job and make a lot of money is to go college. This is wrong according to Thomas Reeves who stated that there are people out that there didnt go to college and have learned a lot after high school and are doing well. Society and the economy has made it out to seem that everyone needs to go to college (Shlack, 1). There are alternatives for the students that college isnt right for. For example, there is the gap year where high school graduates take a year off and travel and see if college is right for them or by simply working in a field they want and working there way up. These can be logical steps to take because this would create no debt to pay off or wasting time and money when the graduate is not qualified for college. There are also other alternatives consisting of the military, becoming a nanny, hospital aid or even teaching English overseas (Schlack, 1). These are all honorable alternatives that would make successful people without the college education. College graduates on average are smarter and have better work habits than high school graduates says Richard Vedder who is a teacher at Ohio University and the director of the Center for College Affordability and Productivity. He also states that the students that graduated from college were better studennts in high school so it could have more to do with traits rather than college itself (Vedder,1). According to Vedder, more than 40 percent of students attending college fail to graduate and end up taking a job offered to a high school graduate. They make a little more money but they have all the college debt and no degree. Schlack and Vedder both share that there are alternatives for college because of the jobs that high school graduates could get. All in all, college isnt for everyone. Im glad that I got to experience college classes before I decided to go to a University. I got to experience a taste of what college is like and see if its right for me. I realized that grades arent everything and college is for those who want to not only get a career but actually learn.

College is for those who value education. College is not for the partiers or the students that dont care about education. Its not for the kids that just want to make a lot of money or the kids that dont plan on thinking autonomously and reaching their full potential. College is not for those who want to go just to go because they think its their only option. There are alternatives for those people. College is for the kids that love to learn, have motivation, are driven, and seek gaining knowledge in the field they want to go in.