Does it pay to get educated?

Why should students do well in school, graduate high school, and 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 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 is of interest.

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 either 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, carpenters, mechanics, dental hygienists and more have careers that are high paying and rewarding. Of course, the catch is, even in these careers they are still “learning” a skill.

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