This article kind of hit me today.

To summarize it for you lazy asses who didn't read it ;), it's about this one guy who was smart, didn't really have the money for a four year college, and ended up not going at all. He debates taking classes at some point, but generally doesn't know what he's going to do.

It goes into the attitude that if you don't at least have a batchelor's degree, you're going to be screwed in the job world sooner or later. And while I can't say I agree with my mom's recent master's revelation... deep down I do think this is the case for people of my generation. It can't hurt to have that on your side when it comes down to them laying off you vs. someone who has different academic qualifications. Sure, you're not likely to use much of what you learned in The Real World, but at least you have a passkey for the future (if nothing else). Though of course, this thinking is coming from someone who has two degrees and does clerical data entry for a living, so what do I know, right? It certainly doesn't seem to do much for me now, but it might in the future.

And truth be told, I do have a hard time understanding why you wouldn't want to get a batchelor's degree if you didn't absolutely suck at school or weren't utterly broke. (Scott's dyslexic and I can certainly understand why he wouldn't want to attempt it.) Though if you're broke, there's at least JC.

Dave hasn't gone to college for very long at a time. Taken the occasional class, but that's it. I can't imagine him getting a degree, to be honest. Which is kind of sad to me because he's smart (in some ways smarter than I am) and it seems like a waste to have him doing what he normally does for employment. But on the other hand, I don't think he'd be happy slaving away in college for four years or more either. He gets verklempt every time he's tried to write a paper for a class (and then dropped out). Someone this articulate can't write anything down. Could talk it out fabulously and he certainly understands the material- the turns of phrase he comes out with sometimes make me wish I carried around a tape recorder- but writing it down, he's useless. And you definitely can't get a degree if you can't write down anything. I know a fair number of people who can't write very well and got through college, but at least they turned in the papers instead of getting stage fright about it.

I relate all too well to this guy's girlfriend who is in college (heck, she wants to teach), and shall we say, "encourages this line of thinking" about him going back to school. She wants him to go, but doesn't want to push him into it if he really doesn't want to either.

I'm not sure how I feel about that. On the one hand, I rather enjoy the post-college life, and would miss him if he was off working all day and taking classes all night for the foreseeable future instead of spending time with me. I'm selfish like that. But on the other hand, I think he'd be better off future-wise if he went, and it's hard for me to not push in some ways for him to go, even though I don't think he'd be happy if he did. If he could go through some kind of program- non-degree, but getting some kind of education to better job prospects- I think he'd be better at that.

But when you're raised to have college as the be-all, end-all, it is a switch to hang around people who well, weren't. (In his town, it's very common for me to hear incredibly shocked remarks like "You graduated from high school?" Yeah, let's not even mention what else I graduated from in that crowd.) I wonder how Demma feels when she hears stuff like this- then again, she lives in the neighboring college town, so perhaps it's different for her. Then again, she's marrying someone that certainly isn't going to go to school. I wonder if that's ever weird to her. I have to admit feeling a certain shock that Dave wasn't. I'm ashamed of it, but it was there. College isn't everything, and lord knows Dave's better for me than my grad student ex in the end, but it does seem to be different when you throw the big M-word into the equation.

The whole situation reminds me of one semi-friend in S&D's group, who I'll call D right now. I may have mentioned her before, I can't recall. Anyway, she is currently a college student, and used to date one fellow that wasn't. From what I heard, this fellow HATED school, and did. not. want. to. go. again. However, the girl was pushing him to go back, purely so he could impress her father. (The relationship didn't last long, but I don't think school had to do with it- her getting him fired from his job most likely did though!) I felt kind of guilty after hearing this story, even though I don't exactly do a whole lot of pushing of Dave to go. But I understand the desire she had all too well. Hoping that her dad wouldn't hate him because he wasn't going for a degree. I do feel well, insecure about that.

I don't want to push him, but like the girl in the article, I feel like I'm somehow going to anyway.

previous entry - next entry
archives - current entry