Responding to a message by Matt, to Charles on ...
I said....
MS>CB>If external rewards could be put into place, we could motivate far 
MS>CB>more of the students than we currently do.  If we could increase 
MS>CB>the stakes the kids have in their education, such as 
MS>CB> actually requiring good grades for admission to college, or getting 
MS>CB> employers to give the best jobs to those that do best in school, I 
MS>CB> daresay a lot more kids would do a lot better.
And then you replied...
MS>For the kids least interested in school (and most 
MS>likely to drop out), you'd have the schools and 
MS>prospective employers in an impossible bidding war.
Now what the heck does THAT mean?  It says that there'd be a bidding war 
for high-school dropouts, but that's not what I suggested at all.  Why 
do you think the reverse would be true - that dropouts would be more 
valuable than graduates in the marketplace if we got employers to spend 
more time checking students' school records?
MS>What kind of job for a HS grad could outbid crack dealing, when crack 
MS>dealing pays a junior-high dropout over $300/day without 
MS>taxes?
How can I argue that?  Given your assumption that most (all?) high 
school grads would take to dealing crack instead of looking for honest 
work that pays a little less, I can't say anything.  There's a very 
simple rule of logic - if the speaker's hypothesis is incorrect, then 
all conclusions ARE correct, since nothing can be refuted.  In the world 
you describe, you win.  My world is a little different, but....
 
MS>Could colleges _afford_ to reject otherwise-acceptable 
MS>HS grads just because they had mediocre grades, at a time 
MS>many colleges are in a crunch to get freshmen or go broke? 
MS>And would any state college following your suggestion 
MS>find itself in an impossible situation on affirmative-action quota 
lawsuits?
Finally - an argument that makes sense!  You are correct - there are too 
many colleges needing to fill their hallowed halls and until competition 
forces the closing of a goodly number, we are not likely to get colleges 
accepting only students with good high school grades.  Still, we can 
hope, and we can look at some solutions that might make things better.
As for affirmative action plans, they are currentlly in a state of flux 
and far easier to restruture so as to fit the new plan.
Chuck Beams
Fidonet - 1:2608/70
cbeams@future.dreamscape.com
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* UniQWK #5290* Any fool can make a rule (Thoreau).
--- Maximus 2.01wb
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