Too Much Emphasis on College

[Wynona]

My parents taught the virtues of a college education from a very young age. My attending wasn't even a question. On the inside I didn't feel willing. But no one gave an alternative.

So I went and manifested mental illness for the first time.

I just wish that someone had been there to say it's alright to want different. I would have been fine with moving into a small apartment and working, even if I had to explain that it was for the purpose of discovering what I actually wanted in life.

Even just a "year off" wouldve helped.

Thankfully, I avoided a lot of debt. But how many students can say the same? Some other downsides of college are their anti-Christian bent and how they do not support any real diversity of thought.

I do not use my degree. I have no desire for a career. I love being a housewife and soon-to-be mother. In the early years of my marriage, college often usurped the effort I put into my marriage. I wish I had the confidence earlier to just say no to the whole thing.

Trade careers like carpentry, masonry, truck driving, and plumbing are all lucrative. Being a housewife, cooking nourishing meals from scratch, cleaning, and being busy at home is great and there's nothing wrong with it. Many women do not feel they have the option to be at home because of their student loan debt.

The military is another option. And what about apprenticeships? Can we bring those back? Why do you need a degree to do art or start a business? If young adults can be successful without saddling themselves with tons of student loan debt, then why isn't there more discussion of other options?

 

[quietthinker]

My parents taught the virtues of a college education from a very young age. My attending wasn't even a question. On the inside I didn't feel willing. But no one gave an alternative.

So I went and manifested mental illness for the first time.

I just wish that someone had been there to say it's alright to want different. I would have been fine with moving into a small apartment and working, even if I had to explain that it was for the purpose of discovering what I actually wanted in life.

Even just a "year off" wouldve helped.

Thankfully, I avoided a lot of debt. But how many students can say the same? Some other downsides of college are their anti-Christian bent and how they do not support any real diversity of thought.

I do not use my degree. I have no desire for a career. I love being a housewife and soon-to-be mother. In the early years of my marriage, college often usurped the effort I put into my marriage. I wish I had the confidence earlier to just say no to the whole thing.

Trade careers like carpentry, masonry, truck driving, and plumbing are all lucrative. Being a housewife, cooking nourishing meals from scratch, cleaning, and being busy at home is great and there's nothing wrong with it. Many women do not feel they have the option to be at home because of their student loan debt.

The military is another option. And what about apprenticeships? Can we bring those back? Why do you need a degree to do art or start a business? If young adults can be successful without saddling themselves with tons of student loan debt, then why isn't there more discussion of other options?

The expression, 'work out your own salvation' is multifaceted in meaning and application. One is not compelled to take on the values of any system irrespective of the pressures applied.
If we are open to direction with value, Jesus gives it in Matthew 5, 6 and 7

 

[Wynona]

The expression, 'work out your own salvation' is multifaceted in meaning and application. One is not compelled to take on the values of any system irrespective of the pressures applied.
If we are open to direction with value, Jesus gives it in Matthew 5, 6 and 7

Had to think about this one. I do wish I had the courage not to cave to pressure. I acknowledge I should have spoken up and been honest about not wanting to go to college.

I still think there shouldn't be so much pressure.

 

[Pathfinder7]

College education is..too expensive..nowadays.
---
Tuition for a year..was $700..
- when I was in college (State University)..
- in 1970's.

 

[Wynona]

College education is..too expensive..nowadays.
---
Tuition for a year..was $700..
- when I was in college (State University)..
- in 1970's.

Wow. Big difference!! Im sure you could work that off over a summer or something.

 

[Raccoon1010]

I went to a trade school to learn my career, much cheaper than college. I didn't make as much but I got by. I too developed a mental illness around 27 years of age. It was a blessing to not have it manifest till later in life.

 

[Lambano]

College education is..too expensive..nowadays.
---
Tuition for a year..was $700..
- when I was in college (State University)..
- in 1970's.

I remember those days. :)

For certain fields, (engineering and medicine coming to mind), that university sheepskin is required just to get in the door. We just hired a new kid out of college, and without that degree, they wouldn't even get an interview.

 

[Stan B]

Had to think about this one. I do wish I had the courage not to cave to pressure. I acknowledge I should have spoken up and been honest about not wanting to go to college.

I still think there shouldn't be so much pressure.

My family actually enjoyed higher learning, with multiple degrees ranging up to PhDs. Just 20 years now in the working world and they are all multimillionaires. Not all that hard to take!

 

[Augustin56]

My tuition for a full load was $111.00. And we received a real education. You were taught how to think rather than what to think (indoctrination). In fact, some schools in my day required you to have at least 18 semester hours in philosophy to graduate with a degree in anything!

 

[Enoch111]

My parents taught the virtues of a college education from a very young age.

You are quite right about too much emphasis on college or university. Today these institutions are hotbeds for indoctrination into Communism, atheism, and amorality. People should avoid them like the plague. As to public schools, there should have already been a TOTAL BOYCOTT.

 

[VictoryinJesus]

My parents taught the virtues of a college education from a very young age. My attending wasn't even a question. On the inside I didn't feel willing. But no one gave an alternative.

So I went and manifested mental illness for the first time.

I just wish that someone had been there to say it's alright to want different. I would have been fine with moving into a small apartment and working, even if I had to explain that it was for the purpose of discovering what I actually wanted in life.

Even just a "year off" wouldve helped.

Thankfully, I avoided a lot of debt. But how many students can say the same? Some other downsides of college are their anti-Christian bent and how they do not support any real diversity of thought.

I do not use my degree. I have no desire for a career. I love being a housewife and soon-to-be mother. In the early years of my marriage, college often usurped the effort I put into my marriage. I wish I had the confidence earlier to just say no to the whole thing.

Trade careers like carpentry, masonry, truck driving, and plumbing are all lucrative. Being a housewife, cooking nourishing meals from scratch, cleaning, and being busy at home is great and there's nothing wrong with it. Many women do not feel they have the option to be at home because of their student loan debt.

The military is another option. And what about apprenticeships? Can we bring those back? Why do you need a degree to do art or start a business? If young adults can be successful without saddling themselves with tons of student loan debt, then why isn't there more discussion of other options?

I’m torn here. I agree about a technical degree or hands on training can be just as valuable as an expensive college. I agree also about the value of staying at home with your children. But I also have seen the other side of it. not all women get that option. I tell my girls now, after they watched me stay home for years…I tell them to not do as momma did. to instead invest in getting a degree and once they can take care of themselves, they will always have that. No one knows the future. I’ve seen this all around me. I’ve seen spouses pass away and the wife has to consider that job. I’ve seen spouses leave. Or spouses become ill. Life is never predictable, as much as we want it to be. Where we are today, may not be where we are a decade from now. I say this as gently as possible because I’m not disagreeing with you. I’m only suggesting that now you may see your education as a waste of effort and time. Enjoying being a homemaker. But years down the road what was once a waste, may help when you need it the most. I never finished any education. Today I’m sorry that I didn’t get a degree in something dependable towards a job.

 

[Wrangler]

If young adults can be successful without saddling themselves with tons of student loan debt, then why isn't there more discussion of other options?

Because TPTB - Big Education - WANT to saddle young adults as economic slaves.

 

[Wynona]

I’m torn here. I agree about a technical degree or hands on training can be just as valuable as an expensive college. I agree also about the value of staying at home with your children. But I also have seen the other side of it. not all women get that option. I tell my girls now, after they watched me stay home for years…I tell them to not do as momma did. to instead invest in getting a degree and once they can take care of themselves, they will always have that. No one knows the future. I’ve seen this all around me. I’ve seen spouses pass away and the wife has to consider that job. I’ve seen spouses leave. Or spouses become ill. Life is never predictable, as much as we want it to be. Where we are today, may not be where we are a decade from now. I say this as gently as possible because I’m not disagreeing with you. I’m only suggesting that now you may see your education as a waste of effort and time. Enjoying being a homemaker. But years down the road what was once a waste, may help when you need it the most. I never finished any education. Today I’m sorry that I didn’t get a degree in something dependable towards a job.

This is honestly the best argument for pushing women towards college. That if the husband dies or leaves, women need a way to survive and college is the way to do that. This is why my own mother pushed me to go to college.

But my problem with pushing women to go to college and have careers on the chance that they could be useful in a bad situation, is that we don't teach what you have to sacrifice in order to do that. A woman is most fertile from late teens to late twenties. Nowadays we teach women to put off marriage and children til late twenties but many women who have been focused on higher education and locked into careers to pay off their student debt find that their time to have children is running out by the time they are established and ready to marry/have kids.

The years I put into college in order to appease my parents took away from my marriage and may mean I can't have the number of children I want.

Also, when women are putting off marriage later and later, they aren't necessarily putting off sex. They are instead either embracing promiscuity or settling for a series of ill defined failed relationships. This makes them ill equipped for marriage and men will always prefer women who are younger and with lower body counts.

When it comes to marriage, it is difficult to go to school, work, have time for your husbands needs, and take care of all the chores that are involved with running a healthy household. We suffer from obesity in droves because no one wants to be at home and so no one has time to cook healthy meals or keep the home clean.

Women have more choices than ever before but there is a trade off for every choice that we ought to be aware of.

If my husband God forbid, passed away tomorrow, I still have no desire for a high stress career. I would get a job that may or may not require a degree and skirt by until I could remarry and resume being at home.

The Bible honors our place in the home. It is a high calling to be a homemaker. If we have to work to survive and provide like Ruth did, that's fine but we can trust God to help us when we need it whether we have a degree or not.

Widows over 60 years old in the New Testament church were provided for by family members and the church. There was no requirement that they go out and work. Widows and their care are still God's heart for churches today according to James 1:26-27.

 

[Augustin56]

Something to think about. The world, as we know it, will be changing, mainly due to demographics. The Baby Boomer generation are all retiring and dying off. They are, hands down, the largest generation, not just in the U.S., but worldwide. That will leave a worker gap. For example, for every five skilled laborers (carpenters, plumbers, electricians, etc.) who are leaving the work force, only two are taking their place. There just aren't enough young people. Add to that the fact that China is fixing to crash, due to demographics. Their 40 year one-child policy has created a problem they cannot possibly fix. By 2050, at the very latest, their population will be half what it is now. And globalization, started by the U.S. just after WWII, as a way to bribe countries to side with us against the Soviet Union, is coming to an end. We guaranteed safe passage for all trade in exchange for their siding with us against the USSR. The USSR is gone, and we have lost interest in being the world's security against trade. China, for example, imports 85% of their food and energy. All it will take is one country who doesn't like China (and the list is long) to sink one or two oil tankers and it's game over. Oil tankers, etc., will only travel if they have insurance. Sink one or two ships and they will stop insuring them, and they will stop delivering. Without food or fuel, China will implode within 6-12 months. Same for many other countries. Add to that, the shortage of fertilizer caused by the Russia/Ukraine War. About 40% of the world's fertilizer comes from these two countries, and without it, many countries who rely on fertilizer to grow food on very marginal lands (Brazil, for example) will not be able to do so. Famine will ensue in many countries.

We in the U.S., on the other hand, will need to either re-shore or close-shore all that manufacturing we sent overseas. That will take 5-10 years, after which we'll be fine. But it'll be a rough 5-10 years. And we'll need all the skilled labor we can get to build the new plants.

 

[VictoryinJesus]

This is honestly the best argument for pushing women towards college. That if the husband dies or leaves, women need a way to survive and college is the way to do that. This is why my own mother pushed me to go to college.

But my problem with pushing women to go to college and have careers on the chance that they could be useful in a bad situation, is that we don't teach what you have to sacrifice in order to do that. A woman is most fertile from late teens to late twenties. Nowadays we teach women to put off marriage and children til late twenties but many women who have been focused on higher education and locked into careers to pay off their student debt find that their time to have children is running out by the time they are established and ready to marry/have kids.

The years I put into college in order to appease my parents took away from my marriage and may mean I can't have the number of children I want.

Also, when women are putting off marriage later and later, they aren't necessarily putting off sex. They are instead either embracing promiscuity or settling for a series of ill defined failed relationships. This makes them ill equipped for marriage and men will always prefer women who are younger and with lower body counts.

When it comes to marriage, it is difficult to go to school, work, have time for your husbands needs, and take care of all the chores that are involved with running a healthy household. We suffer from obesity in droves because no one wants to be at home and so no one has time to cook healthy meals or keep the home clean.

Women have more choices than ever before but there is a trade off for every choice that we ought to be aware of.

If my husband God forbid, passed away tomorrow, I still have no desire for a high stress career. I would get a job that may or may not require a degree and skirt by until I could remarry and resume being at home.

The Bible honors our place in the home. It is a high calling to be a homemaker. If we have to work to survive and provide like Ruth did, that's fine but we can trust God to help us when we need it whether we have a degree or not.

Widows over 60 years old in the New Testament church were provided for by family members and the church. There was no requirement that they go out and work. Widows and their care are still God's heart for churches today according to James 1:26-27.

Again good points. I wasn’t trying to use it as an argument for college. Only sharing that now being in my fifties I see things differently. As my girls grew up and had children of their own. I thought it was a shame or neglectful to put children in daycare. So I frowned when our daughters spoke of daycare. As if it was lesser of them as mothers. Now after five grandchildren I’ve seen a different side. I wouldn’t do daycare when our girls were growing up. Now I have seen my grandchildren, each as they passed through those young ages, really enjoy the structure and interaction with their little friends. Also at first they were sick all the time. Like ALL the time. When my children were growing up that was another reason I thought it was bad to do daycare. But each grandchild soon built up an immunity from exposure to where they didn’t catch everything. Building stronger immunity.

When I was a young mother all of my friends had went off to big colleges. There was one friend that stayed. She was a great friend sitting with me so many hours, with a hand on my belly just as excited about my having children as I was. She married also, and has been a stay at home mother. I saw her the other day for the first time in years. We talked about our daughters. I mentioned to her wanting my girls to be able to take care of themselves. How I’m glad they are taking a different path than mine. My friend exclaimed how she tries to teach her daughter the same thing. She mentioned how her daughters friends say their goal is to become a housewife. But how she is proud of her daughter who encourages them to study. I’m not disagreeing with you because I have felt it strongly to…how important being in the home is. I think a homemaker is an incredibly hard and skillful job. A never ending job. Which is not acknowledged enough for how valuable of a role it is. I get so frustrated how unless it produces money, it isn’t seen as a job. I commend you for your contentment and joy doing what is your passion. But sadly that isn’t always how it is today. That is why I said I’m torn between the passion towards my home and family; but also this constant pressure that it does take money to eat and live.

 

[Wynona]

Again good points. I wasn’t trying to use it as an argument for college. Only sharing that now being in my fifties I see things differently. As my girls grew up and had children of their own. I thought it was a shame or neglectful to put children in daycare. So I frowned when our daughters spoke of daycare. As if it was lesser of them as mothers. Now after five grandchildren I’ve seen a different side. I wouldn’t do daycare when our girls were growing up. Now I have seen my grandchildren, each as they passed through those young ages, really enjoy the structure and interaction with their little friends. Also at first they were sick all the time. Like ALL the time. When my children were growing up that was another reason I thought it was bad to do daycare. But each grandchild soon built up an immunity from exposure to where they didn’t catch everything. Building stronger immunity.

When I was a young mother all of my friends had went off to big colleges. There was one friend that stayed. She was a great friend sitting with me so many hours, with a hand on my belly just as excited about my having children as I was. She married also, and has been a stay at home mother. I saw her the other day for the first time in years. We talked about our daughters. I mentioned to her wanting my girls to be able to take care of themselves. How I’m glad they are taking a different path than mine. My friend exclaimed how she tries to teach her daughter the same thing. She mentioned how her daughters friends say their goal is to become a housewife. But how she is proud of her daughter who encourages them to study. I’m not disagreeing with you because I have felt it strongly to…how important being in the home is. I think a homemaker is an incredibly hard and skillful job. A never ending job. Which is not acknowledgment enough for how valuable of a role it is. I get so frustrated how unless it produces money, it isn’t seen as a job. I commend you for your contentment and joy doing what is your passion. But sadly that isn’t always how it is today. That is why I said I’m torn between the passion towards my home and family; but also this constant pressure that it does take money to eat and live.

I appreciate your perspective because you are sharing based on what you've lived, not just assumptions. If you agree or disagree, I still want you to feel comfortable sharing.

I do think there are challenges to living on a single income. Likely more now than in the past. I cannot spend like crazy or afford lavish vacations. We must make sacrifices to live this way.

Both my husband agreed that making more money at any cost would not fulfill us. I support his decision to take a job that pays less than what he could be making so that he can come home every day.

Homemaking is not necessarily a cushy easy life. It's a sacrifice Im choosing because I believe its worth it and where God would have me make the most difference in the world.

Still, I just hope no one is making you feel like you "aren't contributing" because you stay at home. One lady told me I wasn't pulling my weight! Its even worse if you get comments like that from family members. The pressure is real. Ive felt guilty for being a housewife in the past because of it. The guilt was there even though my husband was happier, our marriage improved, and I was more fulfilled making my home skills a project to consistently improve on.

 

[Stan B]

You are quite right about too much emphasis on college or university. Today these institutions are hotbeds for indoctrination into Communism, atheism, and amorality. People should avoid them like the plague. As to public schools, there should have already been a TOTAL BOYCOTT.

They are also hotbeds offering the path to a lifetime of wealth.

 

[Enoch111]

They are also hotbeds offering the path to a lifetime of wealth.

Not necessarily. Some of the wealthiest men in the world did not even finish high school.

 

[VictoryinJesus]

I appreciate your perspective because you are sharing based on what you've lived, not just assumptions. If you agree or disagree, I still want you to feel comfortable sharing.

I do think there are challenges to living on a single income. Likely more now than in the past. I cannot spend like crazy or afford lavish vacations. We must make sacrifices to live this way.

Both my husband agreed that making more money at any cost would not fulfill us. I support his decision to take a job that pays less than what he could be making so that he can come home every day.

Homemaking is not necessarily a cushy easy life. It's a sacrifice Im choosing because I believe its worth it and where God would have me make the most difference in the world.

Still, I just hope no one is making you feel like you "aren't contributing" because you stay at home. One lady told me I wasn't pulling my weight! Its even worse if you get comments like that from family members. The pressure is real. Ive felt guilty for being a housewife in the past because of it. The guilt was there even though my husband was happier, our marriage improved, and I was more fulfilled making my home skills a project to consistently improve on.

Thank you for welcoming my perspective. Like I said I do agree with you. In a perfect world…what would I want? To be housewife and it be enough. It is weird because after I posted to you I was thinking how you wish (if I understood correctly) your parents wouldn’t have pushed college so hard. My daughters say the opposite, voicing they wish I had. Not in a bad way, but saying they really wish I had pushed how important education is. The woes of being a parent .

I can relate to what you said about comments that hurt you because of being a housewife. Yeah, I’ve heard those too. It really does hurt.

 

[Wynona]

Thank you for welcoming my perspective. Like I said I do agree with you. In a perfect world…what would I want? To be housewife and it be enough. It is weird because after I posted to you I was thinking how you wish (if I understood correctly) your parents wouldn’t have pushed college so hard. My daughters say the opposite, voicing they wish I had. Not in a bad way, but saying they really wish I had pushed how important education is. The woes of being a parent .

I can relate to what you said about comments that hurt you because of being a housewife. Yeah, I’ve heard those too. It really does hurt.

I have the utmost respect for my parents. Especially my Mom. I believe she pushed college hard out of love and not for any bad reason.

I can say I wish she hadn't pushed college so hard but that would never take away her being a good Mom in my eyes because she gave her best.