I think the true tragedy is simply trying to identify the passion and or interests of high school aged kids. It's always been true that kids of that age spend way more time trying to fit in or find their social group than anything else. And at the same time, you _can't_ know what you want to do for the rest of your life at that age. Hell, I'm one of the many who only found what they REALLY liked to do the second year of my master's program. (hint: wasn't what my degree was in)

The real joke is that college is some 4 year, very specific journey for a very specific degree, which many have said already, is often largely wasted on 'unecessary' or 'useless' knowledge. I'd love to see much more industry or real hands-on work come to universities, no matter what area of study it is. Liking to study or research in an area is almost always extremely different than actually working in that area.

The problem is instutitions (i.e. colleges and universities) are always slow to change; its the nature of institutions themselves. Not sure if any radical change is actually possible, but rather at best case a slow molding or attempting experiments over time - a similar conclusion to what McWhorter arrives at.