Does it pay to get educated?

2023-11-20 09:44:40

Does it pay to get educated?



 Why should students do well in school, graduate high school, or go on to college?  In this activity median earnings by various education levels are explored.  Students compare the earnings of a non-high school grad with workers who graduated high school and/or went on to complete higher education degrees.  Hopefully, after completing this lesson, students will have a little more motivation to do well this school year and in the future.

Getting educated isn't all or only about money.  Education offers us the opportunity to do what we want for a living or the opportunity to choose from a variety of occupations that interest us.  The bottom line, getting an education offers people greater opportunity to make a good, stable living and to do work that they enjoy and find meaningful.

 One final thought: you don't have to go to college to have a high paying or rewarding career. There are plenty of success stories about people who didn't go to college or didn't finish college.  There are many avenues for landing a good career.  Highly trained and skilled workers such as electricians, plumbers, mechanics, inventors, dental hygienists, computer geniuses and more have careers that are high paying and rewarding.  Of course the catch is, even in these careers, people still need to "learn".

Consider starting the lesson with this blank bar graph to compare education level with earning possibility Ask students to predict the median salary for each education level by placing a dot where they think each bar will reach.                 

For Adventurer members we have an editable Word docx, an Excel sheet of the data that we found with a chart, and solutions.



 

Thanks to Dan Meyer and Geoff Krall for this idea.

Ken Waldman of Newton Public Schools, modified our 2016 post to make it a little easier for his students.  This is his modification. His data needs updating: does-it-pay-to-get-educated-Waldman.pdf


Activity Solutions & Supporting Materials
Share this:
Comments (0)
    Display 1 - 10 Of total 0
    Macy’s Star Rewards Points
    Wow! Check out this deal at Macy'...
    C and F
    This activity begins with explorin...
    Should I get the Big One?
      Let your students decide if the ...
    The new largest Lego set ever - The Roman Colosseum
    Note: This is a remake of our 2014 and 201...
    Peeps
    How many Peeps are sold at Easter time e...
    New Horizons spacecraft just flew by a really distant asteroid
    Brian May, the lead guitarist of the rock band, ...
    Encouraging bats might be better than using bug repellant
    Bats eat mosquitoes ... lots of mosquitoes. Stud...
    Fish tale, go figure!
    This is being updated....
    Tree for Springtime
    Here in the Northeast, flowers are blooming and ...
    How should I cook my turkey?
    Should I oven bake it, deep fry it or barbec...