The Amish, a cautious and thoughtful group of souls if nothing else, send their children to school only until the 8th grade, expecting that by then they've got the necessary smarts to live life. I couldn't agree more, and I'm not alone; many of today's most successful entrepreneurs quit college after just six months or a year, having decided that's it's little more than a carefully controlled dating service, not to mention a waste of time and money.Sadly, the well-meaning parents of high-schoolers who will spend their so-called fortunes on this now five- or six-year hoax do so as well in preparation for it, making the education business quite enormous. There are SAT preparation courses and tutors and testing services, pre-tests and study guides. Even more costly than the insulting application fees to colleges, which can add up pretty quick when you're on a tight budget, are the college tours, requiring amazing amounts of travel for a minimum of two people including air fare, hotel rooms, gassed-up rental cars and restaurant meals, all so little Isabella or Jacob can settle into a place away from home where, surrounded by like-minded hedonists, they can smoke pot, binge drink, have sex and cut class to go Occupy Wall Street.
Granted, my dim view of higher education is not universally applicable; some students really do go to class and learn, and that's how come we have heart surgeons today. But I'm guessing the majority of college students are simply stalling for time, taking courses like "Introduction to Motown" and "Everyday Spanish" and putting off the day when they have to earn a living. My own son figured this out early on and left school--twice, in fact--because he was eager to get on with his real life. (I still meet people who shake their heads sadly when they learn that he did not "get his degree" and instead must use newspaper to line his bird cage.)
I hope I live long enough to see the whole college system come tumbling down, saving parents their life savings and freeing young people to contribute to our world four, five, six or eight years earlier. It's a thrilling thought.
The way to make it work is for parent to NOT pay for their children's education. It worked like a charm for me. You want to get poor grades? Be my guest. You have to pay to take that class again, not me. Yes, it is expensive, but you don't need an Ivy League education to do well in this world. I just want to make sure my surgeon and engineer did really well in their studies. That affects me.
ReplyDeleteGL
That's smart, but we could not figure out how to have our son attend classes and do all the schoolwork too if he had a job, and he did not have $25,000 in his pocket
ReplyDeletewhen he graduated high school, and we did not want him to start out his adult life with a huge debt. So how did you do it?