CMV: It is a good thing that America is trending away from viewing universities as a necessary part of life.

This is a throwaway account I made to post here, as I want to remain anonymous in this.<br><br>I'm a professor at a well-known university, and also someone who did reasonably well in school. I loved my time in university, and it was a transformative part of my life. However, it is becoming more and more obvious that university is not for everyone.<br><br>I teach in a field that has a shortage of workers, and many of the students in my department have jobs lined up after graduation. However, I have many students who do not grow much as individuals while they are here. Many students are not interested in learning for its own sake, and I can tell that forcing them to learn is making them miserable. Some students are not ready to function as adults, and cannot handle living away from home, even though they are here nonetheless. Many students say they are unhappy with the quality of life here, and how hard it is to get by. I can tell that many students didn't even want to come here in the first place, and only came because they were expected to. I know of many freshmen and sophomores who already know they want to leave, and are only trying to make it last long enough so that their parents won't be disappointed.<br><br>It is obvious to me that these students would be better off in trade schools or something like that. Many of them know how to do something with their hands and could make a lot of money doing it. However, many parents see this as "settling for less" than a university education, which they see as being necessary to a good life. They make their kids suffer through a system that doesn't really even want them here (it just wants their tuition) because they view the alternative as a waste of potential.<br><br>In my experience, the kids who go to trade school are far happier and more well adjusted than the kids who hate university.<br><br>I personally love the university system, and I get to see all the good it does. I am worried that in some near future, all public funding for universities will disappear and they will only be available to the super rich, which will surely lead to a large decrease in quality of life for Americans. I am not sure that it is even possible to change this trajectory. Still, I recognize that the pressure many people feel to go straight from high school to university is a large part of why the system is so flawed, and is leading to such a poor experience for so many people.<br><br>***The nicest award I've gotten so far on reddit. Thanks. :)***