I'm educated

Published by Starfish


My husband and I were talking the other day about "when our children grow up". We both agreed that we wouldn't pressure them into college unless of course they wanted to be something where a college degree would actually help you get something out of all that debt.

For example, if our child grew up and wanted to be a doctor, a veterinarian, an engineer, an accountant, a nutritionist, or a teacher, etc. then we agreed that a college degree is very necessary. If he wanted to be a salesman or the owner of an insurance franchise, then college would obviously be a waste of money AND time. If our kids want to go to college for learning and just get a degree in something like English or Philosophy that doesn't really help you get a job, then we will support them in that, but we just think college, for the most part, is a rip-off, unless you are going to get some real training for a contributing JOB.

I'm sure many people disagree with me very much. I am not a college graduate, but don't think I did not give higher education a whirl. It wasn't for me. I was going into debt, taking classes I hated, had no direction because I was so unsure of what I wanted out of it, and I had no time for myself! I eventually decided that if I wanted to have a career that required a college education then I would go back and be fully invested. I also didn't feel like the style of teaching that went on in college was much different from my public school education (except that it was more demanding), which I felt was not the style I learned well with (lectures, tests, group projects, etc.)

The church that I belong to stresses that everyone get an education. Well sometimes I feel irritated that every time this subject comes up in Sunday School people always talk about a college education. Okay, hello there? There is information EVERYWHERE these days, we live in an incredible age and generation right now where we have the internet and, well I'll be... BOOKS, that one can READ and comprehend and self-EDUCATE with. Ta da! You don't have to go into 10's of thousands of dollars in debt, just to learn what you could learn from a textbook on your own. Some might say that it helps to have a mentor or teacher who is wise in the area in which you want to learn about. To that I say pisha! Anyone who truly learns anything is self-learning, and good mentor just nudges you or inspires you. The internet is also full of people who are wise on any subject. I refuse to feel like less of a person just because I did not get a college degree. I know just as much about things from all that I have read and sought out to learn on my own and anyone with a standard bachelors degree in a useless major. (And by useless, I mean useless job-wise). Education is great, and I agree, very important. But you don't need to pay any institution to teach you what you want to know, go out and learn it yourself! (Unless, of course, you want to become any of the type of jobs I mentioned in the second paragraph).

Education does not equal college.