Mommy Brain

I’ve always felt like a pariah when talking to my friends about college and their intent on sending their kids there and ensuring that their kids don’t have to pay for it themselves. My husband and I are not of the belief that college is a must, and we tell our kids that, too. (I’m sure there was a collective gasp out in the blogosphere as I was typing that last sentence!) College is a tool, but it is not necessary for everyone. For instance, if Noah decides he wants to be a veterinarian and does not waver from that until he is 18, then, yes, he would need to go to college. And since this is a lifetime goal, it will be worth him working for. And he will appreciate it so much more if he is financially responsible it. I’ve never understood parents’ desire to make sure their kids don’t have to work while they are in college. In doing this, they are prolonging their kids’ adolescence and delaying their entry into adulthood.

I went to college and there encountered too many of this kind of student: “Oh, I don’t know what I want to do with my life. I’ll just pick this major for now, I can always switch (three or four or five times) if I change my mind. In the meantime, I’ll party as much as possible, leave my family’s faith behind, and experiment sexually. Isn’t that what college is really all about?” I know that all college students don’t fall into that category. And I aim to make sure my kids don’t. There are so many other ways to gain an education — and this is a life-long process! I hope my children find a career/job/vocation that they enjoy, get the necessary training, and realize that this career/job/vocation is not all there is to life. I hope they will always love to learn and know how to learn!

Today as I was reading my ever-expanding blogroll — I came across this on Mental Multivitamin:

Mental multivitamin: Paying for college: A rant of modest proportions:

We are ‘trained’ to see college as the next logical step for bright kids — like our kids: educated classically with heaps of individual tutoring and time to learn and grow. But the truth is, many of our teens are already better educated than freshmen in our “good” state schools. They (our teens) are better read, more capable, and almost in a class of their own when it comes to writing, thinking, and drawing parallels between the disciplines of history, literature, philosophy, and science.

A big-tag college education may not be their ticket.

And that’s okay.

Click on over and read the rest of the post — it’s brilliant.