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In a message dated 11/24/2004 11:54:03 AM Eastern Standard Time,
nellebelle@... writes:
Maybe, if you are wealthy enough to afford hanging out at college for years.
There are certainly other ways to figure out what you like or don't.

In today's society, college is primarily a job training facility. People
speak of college as *expanding your horizons*, but most people are there in order
to get better qualified to be hired.


The two of my four that have been to college really learned more about life
and themselves than about any future occupation.

My oldest especially (she went away to a four year school) learned lots of
things that she just wasn't exposed to in our home, our community, our State
even.

She "used" her education for two years teaching school. Now she does
something different but all that she learned and experienced in college has helped
shape the person she is today.

We aren't rich by most standards but even with the cost of a private college
education for one child and the amount paid to a community college (which
helped that child decide he didn't NEED college at all), I think it's money well
spent on my children for them to get more information about what they want
their place in this world to be.

One child didn't want college at all and he's learned some lessons on his own
and maybe even sooner than the others but they might have been a bit harsher
since he was in the real world and supporting himself much sooner.

Lots and lots of young people are in college for the "experience" not
necessarily for the job opportunities. Chances are greater, among the twenty
somethings that I personally know that went to college, that they are earning money
in something besides the field their degree is in.


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nellebelle

>>>>The two of my four that have been to college really learned more about life and themselves than about any future occupation.

My oldest especially (she went away to a four year school) learned lots of
things that she just wasn't exposed to in our home, our community, our State even.>>>>>

Sure, a person will learn more about themselves (if they are paying any attention) during two or four years of doing anything. That doesn't change the reason why they are there in the first place.

Did your children go to college primarily for that purpose? To learn more about themselves and the world outside their childhood home? I don't need to know the answer, but it is something to think about.

If the goal IS to learn more about life and one's self, is going to college really the best way to do so, especially considering the cost?

When I went back to college, it cost about $8,000 per year - and that was doing it on a slim budget and working the entire time. If someone had handed me $32,000 and said, "Learn more about life and yourself", I doubt I would have spent the money on college.

I went back to school because of an interest in a particular field and the desire to earn the credentials to work in that field. Of course I learned more about life and myself along the way. But that was not my reason for attending.

In between high school and college, I went to Alaska *for one summer* and stayed for nine years. During that time, I also learned an incredible amount about life, the world outside of my childhood community, and myself. I worked at several different jobs and learned about types of work I like and don't like. For the first time in fourteen years, I felt I was doing what I wanted to do, rather than what others thought I should be doing. Unschoolers have a fantastic head start on that one!

Mary Ellen

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