Great article. I’ve been railing about the uselessness of higher education, in particular LIBERAL ARTS, for years! What is the point of all of these mushy degrees where the only job you are really qualified for is to teach others the same mushy crap?
I wish I had known back then what I know now, and without a doubt I would have gotten a computer science degree instead of “political science”. Instead, I ended up teaching myself programming, a trade that I love, and has been really useful for my family. My MA in Latin American Studies from a “prestigious” school (didn’t seem so prestigious while going there, although seeing a professor on CNN seemed cool at the time) is only good for being able to understand just what a disaster the border and Venezuela are. That’s about it.
In Alaska, these supposed “blue collar” jobs have pretty awesome pay rates - whereas the guy with his libbo degree from wherever has few real options when he comes back from school.
There are incredible online opportunities right now - programs with certification in all kinds of areas, many of them FREE! And via places like Coursera you can take classes from schools like Stanford, MTI, Columbia - I audited one on algorithms that was really helpful for my programming. For free. But they have ways to earn actual college credit, or certification tracks as well - that many tech companies recognize.
I’ve told my kids that I want them to begin looking at online college courses, even just to audit - by the midway point in high school, if not earlier. There is no way I’m paying for a kid to wander around figuring out what seems “cool” at some liberal puke university, where 90% of the kids are drunk 50% of the time.
When my first was due to start preschool I had a great talk with our doctor about “socialization” of children, and whether to homeschool my son for preschool. He pointed out that at least 1/2 of the “socialization” taking place is NEGATIVE, and to keep that in mind. When you think about the kind of socialization occurring on most college campuses, it’s scary.
If one of my kids ends up really interested in some cool field that really demands big level mentors, and they have the chops to get into some big name school - we’ll undoubtedly support it - but no kid of mine will meander into college thinking that it is a cool place to “go to parties and experience game days”.
That’s a good idea about auditing online college courses mid-way through high school.
Also it sounds like you have a good pediatrician. The ones I’ve encountered would probably be virulently anti-homeschool. I get scowls when I say my kids are at home with mom not in preschool