US, Sept. 25 -- Interest in college education among young American students has been declining in recent years. In my opinion, the main reason for this is the low expectations set by their parents. I once asked a colleague if his daughter, who just graduated from high school, was going to attend college. He told me that she did not know yet and then winked, "I am a winner either way".

I got annoyed at my secretary, Cindy, at Sony when she told me that she told her son, a high school freshman, that "lack of college education is not the end of the world". I told Cindy that she should not only have encouraged him to plan for college but also made it an absolute requirement with assurance of full support. If all efforts failed, that would b...