After High School

[Lianne]

Anyone up for a discussion on post-high-school education?

I have had a lot of thoughts about this lately, for different reasons. I grew up expected to go to college, get a degree, etc. It wasn't presented as an option, really, because other options weren't presented at all. I have this memory, from all around, not just my parents, of the two choices being:

Go to college, get a degree, get a good job
or
Don't go to college, get a job at McDonald's flipping burgers

Literally, it's always about flipping burgers

Obviously those are not the only two choices. I did get my degree, and have the student loans to prove it but I didn't get the job I was taught about. I definitely learned a lot in college, some from the classes and a lot from the experience as a whole. I'm not sure it was worth this much debt but we can't really know what it would have been like had we made a different choice, so here I am.

Anyway, I'm curious how to present this whole thing to my kids. It's not that I don't believe in college. Certainly my husband needs the education and degree he worked for to do his job, and I am thankful every day for his job and that he provides for us so I'm able to work at home (both the work of taking care of the kids/home and also the other WAHM stuff I do).

What do you think about this topic and how are you presenting it to your kids?

[Rebecca]

Very interesting question, Lianne! I hope some others who have thought about this also join in. Janet Conner and I were just talking about this a few days ago. She always thought her son would go to college, but when he dropped out of high school, she had no idea what he was going to do. She found a book (I'll have to ask her what the name of it was again) that talks about all of the non-traditional colleges out there. She was telling me about one in Nevada, I believe, where boys (boys only) work on a ranch with their professors. They like kids who have dropped out or are not doing well in school. It is FREE. They only take 25 boys per year and they come out of with an associate degree. Apparently these kids are then recruited by top universities because they have so many skills. They get a free education AND they learn how to ride a horse. How cool!

Some of my very earliest memories involve my own parents talking about when I go to college, so I'm sure there is part of me that believes college is important. It seems that it opens more doors- right or wrong, good or bad- at least at this point in time. Who knows what it will be like when our kids are older. It seems that technology is opening up so many more doors than we had available to us.

A friend of mine, who will hopefully post on this topic, talks to her daughters about how they have a choice. Her husband doesn't believe that college is necessary.

I suppose my own take on it is to prepare them for the future- to be kind human beings who can learn what they need to learn and adapt. If college is in their future, that's great! If not, I know they'll find their way.

I'd love to hear other's opinions, especially those with older children who are currently facing these situations and decisions. But everyone is welcome to comment. What happened when you were growing up? Did you go to college yourself? What about your spouse? Do you think college is necessary? Why or why not?

Looking forward to a lively conversation!