Brilliant, Mike. I teach at a boarding school where everyone, even Bailey Zappe, goes to a four-year College. You've perfectly captured the zeitgeist of families' attitudes toward early adulthood.
One observation to extend your metaphor - Zappe's mom usually *believes authentically* that he is just as good as, maybe not Mahomes, but certa…
Brilliant, Mike. I teach at a boarding school where everyone, even Bailey Zappe, goes to a four-year College. You've perfectly captured the zeitgeist of families' attitudes toward early adulthood.
One observation to extend your metaphor - Zappe's mom usually *believes authentically* that he is just as good as, maybe not Mahomes, but certainly Allen. He just needs the right tutor, and teachers who grade fairly rather than to their ridiculously biased "rubrics." A few more summer brush-ups and he'll be acing Physics 302 (advanced quantum). Come *on*, Baliey, you need to practice your differential equations! No wonder so many college students drink to excess.
That's ... terrifying. We get some delusional/privlege-addicted parents in suburban public schools too. But it's more a matter of Zappe REALLY wanting to go away, and mom and dad wanting it too, mixed with this weird feeling that a year or two in county college will turn the kid into a Morlock.
We lack good 18-22 year old "long leash" life experiences besides college that really satisfy the young person's need for both more freedom and an affordable bridge into adulthood.
The Australians all (seemingly) send their kids off to travel the world while working as bar / wait staff for a couple of years. I'm not sure how successful that process is, but I suspect it at least teaches them that (a) minimum wage jobs suck and (b) there are different ways to do things than here at home.
It's a real challenge to help young people navigate the gap between "18-and-finished school" and "25-and-ready to pursue a career". Sorting out the intersection between "what you enjoy" and "what you can do" is messy and without any path you can direct them towards with a high degree of confidence. I suspect most parents spend those 7 years just hoping "please don't let there be any car accidents or pregnancies".
I spent my early twenties in the military, which has a lot to recommend it, but it's certainly not for everyone. But if you approach it as "I'm going to learn a lucrative trade, get out in three years, and immediately step into a great job," you can absolutely do that, and with no student debt to boot. Again, not for everyone, but I'd suggest that any family at least look into the idea, however briefly. I'm still a few years away from having these conversations with my daughter, and frankly I'm going to try not to think about it until then. Thus far she's uninterested in the entire concept of college, but teenagers are nothing if not fickle, so we'll see.
Our local vo-tech schools have lots of programs that funnel directly into the county college, which in turn funnel into Rutgers-Rowan-TCNJ-etc. So a kid can be taking an electrician's shop at 14 and have a clear path all the way up to electrical engineering. Some of my kids' friends are thriving in that route. But lots of my peers remember vo-tech from 35 years ago as a holding cell for kids who got in trouble at Catholic school
I wish we’d had this when I was in middle/high school 25-30 years ago. My parents had to fight the school just to let me take metal shop and honors physics my senior year - they originally scheduled the one instance of each class at the same time. It’s like they’d never heard of production engineers, which need exposure to both.
My daughter’s an enthusiastic RAF cadet (I’m in the UK now). I think it’s still likely she’ll take the college route, but she’s very conscious it’s given her more choices than her friends.
Signing up was a peer-to-peer recommendation about which I was initially doubtful but now I’d agree that it’s worth being open minded.
I agree. I'm tempted to go so far as to say that a year or two of mandatory military service for 18 year-olds would be good for most of them (including my son, when he gets there), but since I didn't have to go through mandatory military service myself (and I went straight to university, skipping the military), I'm not qualified to advocate that for others.
Brilliant, Mike. I teach at a boarding school where everyone, even Bailey Zappe, goes to a four-year College. You've perfectly captured the zeitgeist of families' attitudes toward early adulthood.
One observation to extend your metaphor - Zappe's mom usually *believes authentically* that he is just as good as, maybe not Mahomes, but certainly Allen. He just needs the right tutor, and teachers who grade fairly rather than to their ridiculously biased "rubrics." A few more summer brush-ups and he'll be acing Physics 302 (advanced quantum). Come *on*, Baliey, you need to practice your differential equations! No wonder so many college students drink to excess.
That's ... terrifying. We get some delusional/privlege-addicted parents in suburban public schools too. But it's more a matter of Zappe REALLY wanting to go away, and mom and dad wanting it too, mixed with this weird feeling that a year or two in county college will turn the kid into a Morlock.
We lack good 18-22 year old "long leash" life experiences besides college that really satisfy the young person's need for both more freedom and an affordable bridge into adulthood.
The Australians all (seemingly) send their kids off to travel the world while working as bar / wait staff for a couple of years. I'm not sure how successful that process is, but I suspect it at least teaches them that (a) minimum wage jobs suck and (b) there are different ways to do things than here at home.
It's a real challenge to help young people navigate the gap between "18-and-finished school" and "25-and-ready to pursue a career". Sorting out the intersection between "what you enjoy" and "what you can do" is messy and without any path you can direct them towards with a high degree of confidence. I suspect most parents spend those 7 years just hoping "please don't let there be any car accidents or pregnancies".
I spent my early twenties in the military, which has a lot to recommend it, but it's certainly not for everyone. But if you approach it as "I'm going to learn a lucrative trade, get out in three years, and immediately step into a great job," you can absolutely do that, and with no student debt to boot. Again, not for everyone, but I'd suggest that any family at least look into the idea, however briefly. I'm still a few years away from having these conversations with my daughter, and frankly I'm going to try not to think about it until then. Thus far she's uninterested in the entire concept of college, but teenagers are nothing if not fickle, so we'll see.
Our local vo-tech schools have lots of programs that funnel directly into the county college, which in turn funnel into Rutgers-Rowan-TCNJ-etc. So a kid can be taking an electrician's shop at 14 and have a clear path all the way up to electrical engineering. Some of my kids' friends are thriving in that route. But lots of my peers remember vo-tech from 35 years ago as a holding cell for kids who got in trouble at Catholic school
I wish we’d had this when I was in middle/high school 25-30 years ago. My parents had to fight the school just to let me take metal shop and honors physics my senior year - they originally scheduled the one instance of each class at the same time. It’s like they’d never heard of production engineers, which need exposure to both.
My daughter’s an enthusiastic RAF cadet (I’m in the UK now). I think it’s still likely she’ll take the college route, but she’s very conscious it’s given her more choices than her friends.
Signing up was a peer-to-peer recommendation about which I was initially doubtful but now I’d agree that it’s worth being open minded.
I agree. I'm tempted to go so far as to say that a year or two of mandatory military service for 18 year-olds would be good for most of them (including my son, when he gets there), but since I didn't have to go through mandatory military service myself (and I went straight to university, skipping the military), I'm not qualified to advocate that for others.