So, I have been perusing home school sites and forums. It is my usual to vacillate between looking for ideas and going it alone. I am independent, probably to a fault. But I also realize that I shouldn't re-invent the wheel. I go looking for ideas and then feel like I am stealing if I didn't come up up with it on my own! DUH!
So, I read a lot. I have noticed that many of us have a measuring device to claim success in our choice to educate at home, college. "Johnny is wanted by two colleges." "Sue went to Harvard!" "What do I have to do to get the twins into college?"
I think that this stinks! Too harsh? Maybe, but did we choose a different path for our prodigy just to measure them by the mainstream? That is what this amounts to, going back to what we rejected to begin with.
I am a college graduate. After high school I went to work but soon discovered that my managers were, shall we say , less than intelligent. The thing that got them their position, in my 18 year old mind, was that college diploma. If they could get one anyone could! So,I went.
Thousands of dollars later my first job was at minimum wage, so was the second and the third! They got me!! I eventually got positions that paid more but that wonderful diploma did only one thing, it got me looked at a little more. My raises were based on time on the job and my ability. My ability was not developed in college but in all my life experiences. College did teach me one thing, there is ALWAYS more to learn! And college is a business.
Some colleges are for-profit run by companies (as opposed to non-profit,state colleges).This list is NOT an Ad but a list so one might realize which are for -profit colleges!
These have been under scrutiny for unethical practices, high interest loans and pushing students into signing and more. Read it here
The non-profits , for most of us still have to be paid for with loans. An instrument that will follow the student for years after. And to top it off there is still no guarantee of a high pay job or a job at all!.
I think that as home educators we, of all people, should see the alternative avenues to college that are available instead of college. John Holt said....
Why then, do we think that this would be good for our explorers of the world? I think a backpack and a ticket to Europe or South America would prove more advantageous. Why did we choose the road not taken only to get back out on the main thoroughfare?
Like I said, I am independent. College can be a great place to learn and expose yourself to things. But it should not be looked upon by the home school community as a measurement of success or intelligence or parental diligence. Our efforts stand out regardless .
So, I say to all of us that may be sweating the "college thing" on the forums or other venues...
"LET IT GO!"
Keep your records (some have to) but let the children explore and don't weigh them down with the race for college. It just feels right.
So, I read a lot. I have noticed that many of us have a measuring device to claim success in our choice to educate at home, college. "Johnny is wanted by two colleges." "Sue went to Harvard!" "What do I have to do to get the twins into college?"
I think that this stinks! Too harsh? Maybe, but did we choose a different path for our prodigy just to measure them by the mainstream? That is what this amounts to, going back to what we rejected to begin with.
Nothing that is worth knowing can be taught.- Oscar Wilde
I am a college graduate. After high school I went to work but soon discovered that my managers were, shall we say , less than intelligent. The thing that got them their position, in my 18 year old mind, was that college diploma. If they could get one anyone could! So,I went.
Thousands of dollars later my first job was at minimum wage, so was the second and the third! They got me!! I eventually got positions that paid more but that wonderful diploma did only one thing, it got me looked at a little more. My raises were based on time on the job and my ability. My ability was not developed in college but in all my life experiences. College did teach me one thing, there is ALWAYS more to learn! And college is a business.
Some colleges are for-profit run by companies (as opposed to non-profit,state colleges).This list is NOT an Ad but a list so one might realize which are for -profit colleges!
- American InterContinental University
- Art Institute of Atlanta
- Art Institute of Pittsburgh
- Capella University
- DeVry University
- Heald College
- Kaplan University
- Miami International University of Art & Design
- Pittsburgh Technical Institute
- Post University
- Strayer University
- University of Phoenix
These have been under scrutiny for unethical practices, high interest loans and pushing students into signing and more. Read it here
The non-profits , for most of us still have to be paid for with loans. An instrument that will follow the student for years after. And to top it off there is still no guarantee of a high pay job or a job at all!.
I think that as home educators we, of all people, should see the alternative avenues to college that are available instead of college. John Holt said....
"I have come to believe that a person's schooling is as much a part of his private business as his politics or religion, and that no one should be required to answer questions about it. May I say instead that most of what I know I did not learn in school, and indeed was not even 'taught.'"
Why then, do we think that this would be good for our explorers of the world? I think a backpack and a ticket to Europe or South America would prove more advantageous. Why did we choose the road not taken only to get back out on the main thoroughfare?
“Action is with the scholar subordinate, but it is essential. Without it, he is not yet man. Without it, thought can never ripen into truth. Whilst the world hangs before the eye as a cloud of beauty, we cannot even see its beauty. Inaction is cowardice, but there can be no scholar without the heroic mind. The preamble of thought, the transition through which it passes from the unconscious to the conscious, is action. Only so much do I know, as I have lived. Instantly we know whose words are loaded with life, and whose not.” - Emerson
Like I said, I am independent. College can be a great place to learn and expose yourself to things. But it should not be looked upon by the home school community as a measurement of success or intelligence or parental diligence. Our efforts stand out regardless .
So, I say to all of us that may be sweating the "college thing" on the forums or other venues...
"LET IT GO!"
Keep your records (some have to) but let the children explore and don't weigh them down with the race for college. It just feels right.
The Road Not Taken
by Robert Frost
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
