Is AUTHOR wrong in the post ? POST : Currently having an arguement with a friend and I thought what better way to solve this than posting it on here. 

I am a teacher at a school for students with social/emotional disabilities. We have 20 yo students who will just barely make it out of high school. I told my friend that last year I suggested to a few students they could pursue being a garbage man.  My friend asked "why would you do that. Tell them to get into STEM."

"Why wouldn't I tell kids making potentially $80k/year, retiring with benefits without going to college is an option?" 
My thinking is this, at least in my school, I know which kids are already destined for STEM, They like science technology and math, they aren't at my school because they aren't academically studious. I'm not telling those kids not to go after their dreams. I'm talking about the kid that absolutely won't make it through 4 years of college.as sad as that may sound, it's a fact. They can't concentrate, they don't do homework, they have a plethora of social and emotional disabilities that inhibit their potential. I like to think I try to give that student hope by helping them understand there are careers out there that don't require you to go to college. My friend sees it differently.

"Anyone can get into STEM at any age". 
"Maybe students should have been told to get into STEM when they were in high school." 
His reasoning is for higher pay ceilings, because of aspiration. "How can you tell kids not to have aspirations". He says you can get into any entry level IT position without college. And the point is to build a skill set to leverage and build upon. Which I get and understand. But to me, not everyone has that drive to be something or be a millionaire. A lot of my kids literally live everyday with a survival mentality. 

"As a teacher, isn't your job to get these children to want to learn?" He says my job isn't to enable that mentality to be complacent.  And by me telling my students to become garbage men, that's exactly what I am doing. 

I have a hard enough time as it is trying to get them to listen to me. They're high school students, they know way more than me (sarcasm), but that's how they really think. 

My friend says an IT helpdesk person makes $30k but they have a clear path to potentially make hundreds of thousands in their lifetime. And a garbage man doesn't have that path. 

So, am I the asshole for not helping these kids see what they can potentially be? According to my friend, my telling even 1 student that it's ok to be a garbage man is too many. 

