When I was a high school teacher, one of the more controversial things I did was to encourage my students NOT to go to college like so many of their peers. Instead, I encouraged them to work or go to trade school. Why? Because college, for most young people, is not a great investment any more. You often don't get more out of college than life without it...particularly in regard to prospective job earnings and college. For example, if a student takes on $100,000-200,000 in debt, they might never be able to pay it off...whereas a student learning welding or plumbing or accounting might live a very happy life with little, if any, debt. And, many kids who could barely complete high school were being pushed straight into college...and they almost always failed.
Needless to say, many parents weren't happy with me telling their kids that there were alternatives to college. When I and other parents were undergraduates, college was affordable...you could work summers to pay for upcoming two semesters. However, today this simply isn't possible for most kids...and this film dares to say it.
"Ivory Tower" is a very good documentary. It shows many different sides and allows the people to talk. A few seemed completely off-base, such as those who insanely think the system is not broken or those who demand free university education...as someone must pay for it. But many didn't seem weird and offered alternatives...such as non-traditional colleges and the students in the commune, of sorts, in San Francisco where prospective students don't do college but live together and teach each other how to be entrepreneurs. I liked these alternative voices and think the film would be fantastic for teens and their parents to watch together. After all, they'll soon have to make a decision...one which can be very costly./
"Ivory Tower" is a very good documentary. It shows many different sides and allows the people to talk. A few seemed completely off-base, such as those who insanely think the system is not broken or those who demand free university education...as someone must pay for it. But many didn't seem weird and offered alternatives...such as non-traditional colleges and the students in the commune, of sorts, in San Francisco where prospective students don't do college but live together and teach each other how to be entrepreneurs. I liked these alternative voices and think the film would be fantastic for teens and their parents to watch together. After all, they'll soon have to make a decision...one which can be very costly./