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I agree that college is not for everyone, but I'm not sure someone earning $10/hr and living at home is a good example of why.
You need to earn like $14.50/hr to even make $30,000 per year. That's hard to achieve with a full time job with benefits without some sort of qualifications in many parts of the country. And I wouldn't consider that a "good job" for most people. Maybe "a" job that will allow you some freedom in life. If you want to make $50k, which for most people is a comfortable salary to live independently and dep on cost of living, raise kids on, you need like $24/hr. That doesn't happen very often with just a high school diploma.
Obtaining some skills in trades like welding, HVAC, electric, mechanics, etc... can go a long way, and there are many smart kids who excel with these kinds of things who aren't book smart and don't necessarily do well in school. So trade school makes a lot of sense for a lot of people, and that can really give them a career. But just a high school diploma in the educational model we have in the states (essentially a state funded babysitter for many kids) don't open many doors. You have to be pretty lucky to make it in a stable career without something else.
Also, as for college, I think it really depends on what we're talking about. When kids go to college as an extension of high school to be babysat for another 4 years just passively waiting to come out the other end as an adult ready for the workforce, it's a total waste of money. You can't expect to party for 4 years "studying" masscom and expect to land a $60k salary job waiting for you with open arms at graduation. It happens for very few people. For most, you're not much more ready for the workforce than the 19 year old high school grad who didn't go to college.
If you're serious about coming out career ready with expectations of a well paying job at the end, then study something like engineering, computer science, or accounting. These degrees pay off well for a good number of people.
If you decide you want to major in art history, literature, the classics, or something in the natural sciences because it interests you and you are passionate about it, that's great. But you need to understand that's on you. You chose to study it because you liked it. That's it. You need to have realistic expectations about what being passionate about these things will lead to in terms of jobs. For many of these majors, jobs available either have a very difficult point of entry or have very low ceilings in terms of advancements without further studies. And even with further studies, these fields can be difficult to break into due to the low number of well paying jobs.
If you're smart, motivated, street smart, and to an extent somewhat lucky, there are many good jobs with growth potential that don't require any particular degrees, but most require a bachelors as minimum requirements. You can't be just any random kid to get these jobs, but a college degree does open a lot of doors as well.
It's just important for kids (and maybe their parents too) to understand what kind of kid they are, what types of careers and education fits well for them, with realistic expectations of what doors will be open to them with whatever investment on education they make. People get disappointed because their expectations weren't met, and it's partly their fault for not setting the right expectations in many cases.
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That could totally work if I didn't need a specific color for clinics!
