But What About College?

Thanks to my friend The Libertarian Homeschooler for today’s guest post!

How do you know your children will be ready for COLLEGE?

It must be because I come from an over-educated family full of great degrees and flagrant under-achievement and I married into a family of happy, well-adjusted, hard-working people who made something of themselves without letters behind their names that I’m totally unimpressed with college and its magical powers.

My family bought into the whole “college makes you superior, darling” mentality. I am here to tell you that people with letters behind their names are not exempt from debt, angst, failure, drug addiction, bankruptcy, divorce, bad decisions, or anything else.

College is not the cloak of invisibility. College is not the holy grail.

College is a tool and, as with all tools, you may need it and you may not. I would no more suggest to my children that they needed college before they knew what they wanted to achieve than I would suggest they needed a table saw before they knew that they wanted to be cabinet makers. Who does that?

People are walking around thinking “Everyone needs college, darling” and putting children into hock for an urban legend. “If you go to college you will have security.” Not happening. We have an entire generation of well-educated debt-saddled welfare hipsters.

Stop this. Think. You’re being had.

Is it important to prepare your child for college? No more than it’s important to prepare your child to buy a Ditch Witch. Your child may need a Ditch Witch and she may not.

It’s important to prepare your children for life. If they are prepared for life and they figure out later that they need college or a table saw, they’ll figure out how to get it.

“Will your child be prepared for COLLEGE?” has now taken on the same glow as, “But what about SOCIALIZATION?” and “Who will build THE ROADS?” It’s like an opera in my head and Mike Rowe is the tenor who saves them all.

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~ The Libertarian Homeschooler

Follow The Libertarian Homeschooler on Facebook. You’ll be glad you did.

FURTHER READING:

Profoundly Disconnected. Mike Rowe’s site challenges the absurd belief that a four-year degree is the only path to success.

Dirty Jobs. Mike Rowe’s excellent Discovery Channel series on necessary skilled labor jobs.

Forbes Magazine: Truths Your College Won’t Tell You. There are several important facts of life you should know about college degrees that colleges themselves aren’t likely to mention.