Education in the Dark Ages...

Waaay back when I was a kid, back in Medieval Times, there was a fork in the road when you got out of high school: you went to college if you were smart, and if you weren't, you didn't.

And if you didn't, you were thereafter confined to a morass of mediocrity.  

There was no choice.  No other options.  Except the military, of course.  Or the family farm.  Or perhaps the ministry.  But for all other occupations, you went to college if you were too smart to "work for a living," or so they thought. To shoe horses, or fix cars, or install HVAC systems, for instance.  The "underclass."  The "less well educated."  The forever condemned, is what they meant.  People looked down their noses at these folks.  The folks that made possible their standard of living.  The folks who brought gas to their cars.  Who brought food to their tables.

The folks that were earning a full-time, $Big Bucks paycheck while the others were learning all about Medieval Lesbian Poetry.  On a Gubmint student loan.  Which qualifies them for...nothing.  A loan that can never be discharged as a debt, even if they die.  Lemme' say again:  You cannot bankrupt yourself out of student loan debt!  

Now do you wonder why banks are crawling all over themselves to make these loans?

I think I went to college more out of fear for what might happen to me if I didn't.  In fact, I had recurring nightmares for months, even after I was out of college, that I had overslept and missed my finals.  I hadn't, of course, but even having nightmares over such a thing for so long should give you an idea how important it was back then to have a degree.  

In short, there were two kinds of people:  Those who'd graduated college, and those who hadn't.

And your "major" mattered not.  I had a double-major, for instance; Psychology and Economics.  Aren't I smart?  I planned to teach, hopefully at my home town high school, until I learned how much the job paid.  Bupkis.  With this degree I'd be qualified to ask, "Would you like fries with that?"  

Back then?  I was welcomed with open arms by a recruiter who just happened to be in the search firm I'd chosen that day.  As it happened there was a guy there from Pfizer Phamaceuticals looking for a newly-minted graduate just like me.  Or any warm body that looked semi-presentable, could fog a mirror and put a few words together.  And after a short interview, I was hired as Pfizer's newest "Pharmaceutical Manufacturer's Representative."  Not a single question was asked about my education.  Only, "When can you start?"

All of this happened while the ink was still drying on my diploma.  I could have left my car idling by the curb...

From that inauspicious beginning of trying to convince doctors in the plains of Kansas that my stuff was better than the other guy's stuff, I moved on up the corporate ladder until I was recruited  by another firm.  And yet another.  But after awhile, I had vacuumed up enough knowledge from all available sources about how to start and manage a corporation, that I started and managed a corporation.  And it worked out.  Famously!    

I have suggested forever that kids join the military immediately following high school.  Men or women, makes no difference.  They are kids when they go in, they'll be full-baked men and women when they get out.  And they'll travel the world.  And learn all kinds of new and wonderful stuff.  And make new friends.  Of all races and religions and nationalities.  And when they get out the Gubmint will pay for their college.  Which costs and arm and a leg.  So why not make your neighbor, the one who hates the Army, the one who has a Tesla you paid for, the one who thinks America sucks, now pay for your kid's college?

The commie pri*k!

Did you know that you can earn more than $100,000 a year as a lineman?  Or a fireman?  Or a cop?  Or a pipefitter?  Or more than a dozen other trades?  Many requiring no more than a high school degree? 

Did you know you can earn more than $250,000 a year as a farrier?  That means, "the guy who drops by sometimes and shoes horses."   

Or they could join the Peace Corps.  Or convert to Mormonism and go on a pilgrimage.  Or take a job painting those infernal yellow stripes down the center of the highway.  Just do SOMETHING to grow up!  Find a way to get from 18 to 21 without killing themselves or someone else!  

Or, they could go off to college, gain 15 pounds, get drunk or stoned all the time, flunk out, and blow a bunch of money, perhaps THEIR money, or their PARENT'S money, on student loans.  Like I did.  Your choice...  Or your kid's choice.  Except they're not smart enough to make that choice until they've reached the age of majority.  And they won't get there without making this choice.

Proof God has a sense of humor... 

I can say that everything important I now know I've learned since I got out of school.  Life experience is the very best teacher.  And the only way to get life experience is to live it!  To take chances.  To be daring.  To jump into the deep end of the pool...  

I did.  And I wish the same for you.  Good luck!