What is the point of a GED?

I have been hearing multiple media ads paid for by taxes telling people how wonderful it is for them to go out and get their GED. As you may recall, the General Equivalency Diploma, or GED is how people get a diploma for HS, after they drop out of high school and never return. It is one of the most useless diplomas that exist and not worth anyone paying the school fees to get one. Let me explain.

1. Only the US Military will ever ask if you graduated HS. No other employer cares about that. You can even gain entry to a college and graduate with a PHD without the benefit of a HS diploma. So, there is no value of getting one. Employers want to know if yo ae old enough to work for them and if you have any skills they can use. Complicated jobs, will require higher degrees or certificates.
2. Graduating from HS means nothing. In our society today there is a huge variation between college-bound students and unskilled labor-bound students. There are entire school districts where students are unable to read, write or do basic math. And that is just the students who finish HS. The schools themselves do not offer any sort of minimum achievement that they are attesting to for graduates. No one cares.
3. So, who benefits? Thee are a whole bunch of community colleges out there giving classes at a skill level that should have been covered in public schools. Those colleges make a huge profit from getting as many stupid students in as possible. Smart students go to real colleges. Those colleges don’t care if their students graduate, or if they learn anything while trying. It’s all about getting as much money from them before they drop out, just like they did in HS. And the government pays for the advertising because of all the student loan and grant programs out there for underachieving people. This is free money that those community colleges need and want and to get it, all they have to do is get more HS dropouts to walk in the door.
4. If you, for some reason didn’t finish HS, put it behind you. Move on with your life and go get that next more useful goal instead of chasing after the useless goal of reliving your past.

Advertisement