Posted on 06/05/2011 8:34:04 PM PDT by tsomer
I want to mark this day with friends.
My daughter graduated from high school today,with honors and five AP classes to her credit.
This fall she's off to Gettysburg College. I was hoping she'd study engineering or math, but she's elected to major in history. On reflection it makes sense. She's still liberal in a sophomoric way, but independent and determined. I can no longer show her the way, but I'm confident she'll find it.
Does anyone have a kid going there?
I'd welcome any correspondence via freepmail.
Thanks
What, you mean she didn’t want to join the Army?
Congrats to your daughter.
Give her “the talk”. She needs to be very careful at Gettysburg College. It’s a good school but has a reputation for “partying” that goes back at least 25 years (when my son-in-law went there.)
Only if you plan on either supporting her or marrying her off after graduation. It won't take much searching to see how you are throwing your money away or, even worse, letting her graduate deeply in debt with no prospects for a job. Sorry to burst your bubble on what should be a happy day.
I’m not a subscriber to letting them figure out belief on their own when they are forming. My daughter has 7 APs to her credit, attends UPenn, and is a serious Catholic and conservative. I gave her the tools to argue her view before starting high school!
Good luck to you, your daughter, and her mother. I have a 13 month old daughter and am just beginning such a journey.
I don't have any personal knowledge beyond that so will defer to others. Anyway Congratulations to your daughter, and best of luck with Sallie Mae...
Talk to your daughter. A history degree has ZERO job prospects. A friend of mine got a History Undergraduate Degree from Columbia University, and then a masters from UMass. He couldn’t find a job for 2 years and finally joined the air-force.
If she is going to major in history, make sure she seeks internships that will give her marketable skills. I think history is more of a hobby than something to invest your college education on.
Beautiful school.
Academically, it's perfectly competent but not a particular head-turner for the credentialists. I knew a couple of young folks who graduated from Gettysburg and ended up working for the RNC. Good kids.
You’re sending her to Gburg? Wow, you must be rich. The history program really is good there and the opportunities to immerse herself in the 19th century are limitless in that area. It’s a thrilling place for a historian to be, not only because of the battlefield park but because within a 90 minute drive there are resources of immense depth: the other battlefield parks, historic houses, history libraries, the Smithsonian, the National Trust, researchers, writers, you name it. And in a town like Gettysburg she is far less likely to have problems with personal safety than if she were going to a city university.
Um...does she have any idea how she can earn a living with a degree in history? Because while studying history is huge fun—done it myself—scores of my friends studied history in college and only one of them is kind of using his degree (he’s working as a park ranger at a national battlefield park).
Eisenhower Farm is in the area - has his library [Sherman Tank on the grounds].
Three ski areas close by, Hershey Park up the road about an hour, Lancaster [Amish country], etc.
Just keep her away from the frat boyz from Mt. St. Mary's College [about 15 miles south across the MD Line] ...
WHY, you may ask ...
HINT: Rent Animal House and FF to the Toga Party scene ...
Congratulations and good luck to you and your family.
Sending this along (my email files, no author noted) as a potential starting point for discussing the facts of liberal life with your apparently quite bright daughter.
___________________
Wealth redistribution: The grades example
My son and I were discussing taxes and wealth redistribution as part of a government class assignment.
“What is your grade in government right now?” I asked.
“B,” he said.
Okay. I imagine that there are some people getting A’s and others failing. Correct?”
“Yes.”
“Well tomorrow imagine your government teacher announcing that those students getting A’s will have two grade points deducted so that the students getting F’s and D’s can have their grades lifted to a C. The individuals getting B’s will have one grade point deducted and used for the same purpose. After all, it isn’t fair that those students getting A’s and B’s should help out students who aren’t as fortunate? Make sense?” I asked.
“No. The reason we get A’s and B’s is that we are working hard or maybe we are smarter. It isn’t our fault that some kids are getting D’s and F’s,” he answered.
“Well, you’ll still do okay. Getting a C is still passing, and you will have helped out the other students,” I argued.
“If you do that, there is no reason for me to study hard,” he reasoned. “I’ll take it easy.”
“But if you take it easy, where will we get the grade points to help those D and F students?” I asked. “We have to get the points somewhere.”
“I don’t know,” he said.
He now understands the economic effect of redistribution through taxation.
Thursday my son graduated as Valedictorian, 1 out of 509. He is a National AP Scholar with 8 AP 4s. Letters in Baseball and Hockey. Youth religion instructor. Good looking to boot. Off to Notre Dame to study Biochemistry.
I really don't have any advice for you but saw a good opportunity for this proud dad to brag a little. : )
Just keep her away from the frat boyz from Mt. St. Mary's College
and especially that tip.
Oh Lord, don't they all?
But I will talk to her about it...
somehow.
I hear people recommending conservative colleges, but traditional morality and patriotism are learned in the home first or not at all. It’s naive in the extreme to hope for support of traditional American values in today’s colleges.
It wasn't her first choice. I'd have wanted her closer by, but they made the offer and we grabbed it.
It's truly terrifying, the cost of a college education. It's even worse considering that without scholarships middle-class students are at the mercy of the Federalized student loan racket. Who, ultimately I wonder, is going to collect? Can you duck the IRS in bankruptcy?
Indentured servitude looms.
I wish I’d had your foresight.
Thanks
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