Thursday, July 07, 2005

College?

I have read some interesting things regarding the “should women go to college?” debate. Just because I can, I decided to state my opinion on the issue.

Everyone is wrong, except me. Now go away.

*Ummm, don’t you think you should elucidate your statement?*

No! That would give people fodder to disprove what I’m saying! The number one rule in debating (at least amongst politicians) is to never really say anything, so that is what I will do.

*Hey, elaborate or this post won’t see the light of day.*

Fine. Please don’t assume you know where I am going before you read the whole thing.

There is a debate “raging” over whether or not women should go to college. What I find amusing is that both sides seem to take a fierce pride in being the minority, which of course is impossible.

So what is the truth? What is the answer?

Before I go into that, let me give you a short background sketch of myself. I have an accounting degree, Wife #1 has an accounting degree although hers is from a better school. Some people have stated that one reason men don’t want women to go to college is that they might discover that their wife is smarter than they are, well, she is. And she worked harder at getting good grades than I did. She graduated with honors, and won the prestigious Business Department award, which was called something more pretentious than that. She went to college, did VERY well, and we have the student loan to prove it!

Of course, as some of you know, due to her health problems, she is rarely able to make it to work. When she does feel well enough to go and work at a place that allows her to keep extremely flexible hours, she doesn’t do anything accounting related. So was her degree wasted? Were the hours that she put in, working so hard to get good grades, were they wasted? Of course not.

But the money sure was. If we didn’t have that student loan hanging over our heads we would be in a better place financially. We are called to be good stewards of our finances, spending thousands of dollars learning something that will not bring in a return greater is a waste of money.

Of course we didn’t know the future, we didn’t know that she would have health issues that would prevent her from using her degree to get a return on the investment. The money was used wisely at the time, going to a cheap college close to home, in the end, unless you go to Harvard, Yale, MIT, Penn State – The Behrend Campus (had to throw that in there), etc. the name of the school doesn’t matter. Get what you need cheap, like shopping at Dollar General, the “Cheerios” aren’t as good, but they will give you energy to start the day just the same.

Another argument for college is that it teaches people how to be adults. We are so babied, not learning to be adults before we hit the age of 18? In the old days a boy became a man at 13, had a mid-life crisis at 22, bought a faster donkey, then died at 30. Today people are still learning to be adults way past the age when they should be buying a faster donkey!

*Wow, I can feel the emotion bursting through*

And learning how to be an adult from college? Based on my past experiences, that would be like learning about sex from a pornographic movie. You want t o learn how to be an adult? Go get yourself an apartment, get a job, and survive without help. That is how you learn. Or you can have good parents that teach you how to fend for yourself, I hated it when I was younger, but I am now so grateful that I had to work for most things I had.

Now to make the other side mad at me:

Education in important. Formal education (do not read public schools) in most cases is better in teaching math, grammar, and whatnot. That is not to say that people home schooling their kids do a poor job of educating them, in fact I think that home schooling educates better than most public schools. But it cannot really be denied that a trained teacher who knows the material from years of teaching it is better at teaching grammar to a child than a parent who is doing this for their first time. No matter what aides they avail themselves of.

But what about college? How do you decide whether or not it is for you? I don’t know. But I think before you make the decision to go, you need to have a good reason for going. Especially when you consider the thousands of dollars being spent for the experience. But if you decide not to go, you need to have a good reason for not going as well. I think the best way to decide what is right for you is to decide what it is you plan on doing? Do you think that you are called to teach? Do you feel the tug pulling you to artistry? Or music? How about gardening? There are many things a woman can do in the home, while caring for her children besides washing dishes and vacuuming. These other things don’t even have to be hobbies. Of course it is simpler if the tug is pulling you towards being a wife and mother. As long as the children are cared for, I don’t really see anything wrong with being an artist and selling paintings, or teaching piano, or any number of things. It just has to be done with the welfare of the children being a higher priority.

Now we get to the part that I think too many men think of clinically, with a lack of emotion. What if a woman does not want to be a mother? What if a woman wants to have a job, have a husband and not have children? What then?

I say this as gently as I can: Life sucks. I know this firsthand. Women are called by their Creator to first be mothers. As I write this I think about how this applies to me. What if all doors were closed to me except being a cartoonist? That would be awful for me. But I would have to learn to be content. Just as does a woman who does not want children, but one day finds herself pregnant. She must put the welfare of the child first, and all other aspects of her life must change to be the mother to this child.

This of course can cut both ways, what if there is a woman who only wants to be a mother, yet God says no? What does she do then? She must first be content of course, but what to do with her life?

There are far too many questions that are unanswered to really say which is better. I tend to lean towards not going to school over going to school because I am a big believer in wise stewardship, and to be honest, paying thousands of dollars just for the sake of gaining knowledge when it could be given to people who are in desperate need of help is not a wise use of money. In fact I would argue that it is wasteful. The gain of knowledge is never a bad thing, spending some money towards gaining that knowledge is not a bad thing either. Just keep it in moderation.

What the situation comes down to is that we have two groups of people who are doing the same thing different ways, yet they both exclaim that they are correct! Why can’t it be…

*both*

neither?

Like I said, I’m right, you all are wrong.

To be honest, these are jumbled thoughts in my head about this issue. I could very well be wrong about everything, but I doubt it. If anything I said has offended you, remember, I didn’t make you read this. But I will always listen gladly to dissenting voices, so long as they make sense and use a maximum of four curse words.

Also, most everything that I have said can be applied to men as well. If a man doesn't have a really good reason for going to secondary school I would consider it a waste of money for him to blindly head off to college, with no idea of what he wants to study, or do in the future. College is not a rite of passage that you can only do when you are between the ages of 18-24.

Fritz

8 comments:

Gabrielle said...

Mr. the Grand,

Ha! Your nefarious scheme failed! I am not mad at you and I have no dissenting view! I will go so far to say I think you might be right. Take that!

your groveling servant,
sister #3

Seth Ben-Ezra said...

Am I allowed to make a response that is just four curse words? Just curious, you understand.

james3v1 said...

You all need to get a life.

Raquel said...

Well, I was going to post a comment asking if Mr. Fritz the Grand would be offended by having someone agree with him; unfortunately Gabrielle (sister #3) beat me to it. It all comes out the same though, since we're interchangable--except I don't get a number.
Or I could assign myself a number...

Raquel #1 (except for maybe all the other Raquels out there somewhere...)

And as for you, James--Why?

Anonymous said...

you know, i can tell you that not having a degree has been detrimental to me in the workplace for advancement. i didn't go to college, i got married and had a child instead. i am very good at my job, but by not having that stupid piece of paper, there missed opportunities. unfortunately i'm too freaking old to go to school now, and not in a position financially or emotionally to go.

i can tell you that i am more qualified in some areas than that person that just got hired with a piece of paper that says "look ma, i graduated!" also, that person is making at least $5000 more than i am... which sucks...

so there are benefits to going and not going... everyone needs to decide for themself though...someone telling them "you have to go to school" is not the right decision for everyone.

Jonathan said...

Dear Mr. Lurker,

I completely agree with you. There are things that we sometimes have to do, due to the fact that people have lost their imagination and get so single-minded about college degrees. I once listened to a speech given by a large owner of a business and he said that in his line of work, M.B.A. stood for "Might Be Able".

The piece of paper shows that you know certain things, my piece of paper states that I know Accounting. Here is where the situation gets murky, experience on a resume is far more valuable in my opinion. I learned almost everything I really know about accounting from my old C.P.A. boss, and he paid me for it. Of course he used to say that he should dock me for tuition when he had to correct a praticularly grievous error. But that is a topic for another day.

College is over all a "good thing" in my book. But I think we have begun to place to great a value on the piece of paper, think of it this way, if your life was on the line would you trust the orders of a 2nd Lieutenant fresh from West Point or the orders of an NCO who has been in combat for three months?

Experience is more important than the paper. Good for me, I work at a place that values hard work and experience over certifications and pieces of paper that would show that I "Might Be Able."

Anonymous said...

the only thing i can think to say to this response is "i concur"

amen, brotha

a pain in the back said...

Surely someday I will be completely healed, and I will be the CFO of some gigantic conglomerate; therefore, my student loan will be such a wise investment (as all colleges tell you), that we will receive the money back ten-fold.

And that little piece of paper is so, so pretty.