This post has been in the mulcher for a while. Pls excuse my tardiness.

Inkwell posts an intriguing thought about college. Why college?

Do you, homeschooling family, encourage your children to attend college? Why or why not?

Personally, I don't think a college education is necessarily good or bad.  I believe there are good, valid reasons to go; I also believe there are many more not-so-good reasons. I think there are three prevalent, universal misconceptions about college:

1. What is taught at college is what's learned. Those of you who are college educated: how many are working in your degree field, and can confidently say you will be for the foreseeable future? (Statistically, from many sources, the average American worker changes professions, not just jobs, 7 times over a lifetime.) Also, for those who like me have fruits from a misspent youth, how many of you even remember the majority of classes you took?

2. A college education directly translates to economic success in life. A college education used to be a significant discriminator for employment. It is, today, fast becoming a "right" for anyone who wants to attend. College often does make for economic differences, although not in the best ways: debt from tuition costs and the ubiquity of credit cards now allows students to start their “adult” lives, after college, with anywhere from 30k to 80k worth of debt. Is this really the “discriminator” we’re looking for?  We have been taught the mantra:

Get good grades in high school so you can get in a good college. Do well in college-get good grades, get a degree in a good field-so you can get a good job with a solid company. Do well in your job; stay with that company, and later on, you’ll be taken care of.

This thinking is based on an Agrarian/Industrial Age mindset. For our grandparents, certainly, and to some extent, our parents, this was a “safe” path for your working life. But can anyone honestly look at today’s marketplace and have the same confidence in ANY company that previous generations took for granted? Two examples: one, General Motors. Once the world’s largest company, it’s now struggling to avoid bankruptcy.  Many reasons for that, but is it a company you could whole-heartedly endorse to your offspring for employment? Two: IBM. For over 80 years IBM was the epitome of stability, profit and corporate rectitude. They boasted that they had never laid anyone off.  And that was fact. However, over the last 4-5 years, they have “outsourced” over 100, 000 jobs. And with the volatility in the tech field, is IBM a “sure thing” anymore?

3. A college degree is necessary to be successful in business. Some of the world's most successful businessmen (Gates, Dell, Biezos, Walton) didn't attend. They're did/ are doing OK w/o a diploma. Again, the issue is “what do you learn.” College textbooks, when addressing business trends and capability, are hopelessly outdated even as they reach the classroom. Also, the teachers have seldom been "doers." For instance, how many business professors, at any level, have ever been in business, either as an employee or an owner? How can you learn business administration from someone who has NEVER been in a workplace, “administering a business,”  and is teaching from a text that, at its most current, has data 7 years old?

Enough doom & gloom for now. I’ll think about the positives for a later post.

Cheers.