Rethinking sending kids to college

[Anonymous]

Just read "Who Needs College Anymore? Imagining a Future Where Degrees Won’t Matter" from Harvard Press, by Kathleen deLaski. I will paste the description below, but it really underscored how the whole system preys upon upward-mobility-seeking, striving parents who are bedazzled and deceived by rankings, relying on such soulless statistics (Naviance!) to try to contrive their children to fit a completely unworkable and soon-to-be irrelevant mold. Just reading this board, the anxiety spills off the page -- and I feel it too!! -- and I am seeing how sad, pointless, and hollow it is. I would urge any parent to take a step back and think critically about what you and your child are getting out of this rat race and why you care so very much about a brand-name degree. The world is changing. The cost of a degree is untenable. The ROI is lacking. I am not a p.r. shill, just a parent slowly waking up to the fact that we're doing wrong by our kids (and ourselves) by fixating on this stuff so very much. Description below.

In the wake of declining US university enrollment and widespread crises of confidence in the value of a college degree, deLaski urges a mindset shift regarding the learning routes and credentials that best prepare students for success after high school.

The work draws on a decade of design-thinking research from the nonprofit Education Design Lab as well as 150 interviews of educational experts, college and career counselors, teachers, employers, and learners. DeLaski applies human-centered design to higher education reform, engaging the perspective of end users to search for better solutions. She highlights ten top principles based on user feedback and considers how well they are currently being enacted by colleges.

In particular, she urges institutions to better attend to the needs of new-majority learners, often described as nontraditional students, including people from low- or moderate-income backgrounds, people of color, first-generation students, veterans, single mothers, rural students, part-time attendees, and neurodivergent students. She finds ample opportunity for colleges to support learners via alternative pathways to marketable knowledge, including bootcamps, skills-based learning, and apprenticeships, career training, and other types of workplace learning. This work suggests innovation as a means of evolution.

[Anonymous]

i genuinely feel sad for your kids to have such stupid parenting

did you sell your 401k at the bottom of covid too?

[Anonymous]

Uh, she still recommends college. Just maybe not spending life savings for BRAND college.

But honestly, BRAND college will still probably be worth it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Uh, she still recommends college. Just maybe not spending life savings for BRAND college.

But honestly, BRAND college will still probably be worth it.

Actually, read the book. She does not recommend traditional "college" as it stands now.

[Anonymous]

Not everyone is meant to go to college. You do you.

[Anonymous]

It's okay, OP.

You don't have to send your kids to college

[Anonymous]

I'd leave that decision up to my kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not everyone is meant to go to college. You do you.

So true, but also, the entire system as it stands now is on the brink of toppling - we're on the brink of a sea change and savvy parents will plan accordingly.

[Anonymous]

Sounds like an excuse to not save for college

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sounds like an excuse to not save for college

Genuinely curious - What is with the blind allegiance to college here? This board is so antsy and active. Honestly wondering why so many hopes are pinned to this and why worth seems to be measured by what college your kid goes to. "Pointy" kids? Even the terminology is dehumanizing. What is the allure?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not everyone is meant to go to college. You do you.

Of course not

Plumbers still go to school
HVAC do as well

Contractors need certifications

OP is too dumb to understand that education is key period.

She does t understand the article at all .

OP no worries your kids will be poor and sick soon enough.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not everyone is meant to go to college. You do you.

Of course not

Plumbers still go to school
HVAC do as well

Contractors need certifications

OP is too dumb to understand that education is key period.

She does t understand the article at all .

OP no worries your kids will be poor and sick soon enough.

It's a book, not an article -- and the essence of the book is that education takes many forms. Poor and sick soon enough? Your post is disturbing.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:For a non-shill you sure sound a lot like a shill

You seem oddly defensive. Why did this post upset you?

Did you reply to the wrong person? All I said was that you sounded like you were paid? You seem confused?

Your take is a bad one. What a strange accusation to hurl. Someone can enjoy and recommend a book without being a shill.

Your recommendation is a strange one. Put down the crack pipe and try not to sound like an LLM next time.

"Put down the crack pipe"? Are you a Diane Sawyer special from 2004? Let's agree to disagree, and when it comes to education, perhaps consider a class in debate skills or wit 101.

Are those the courses you're suggesting we enroll our kids in instead of Bachelor's programs? Enroll yourself in a rehab program, enter a nursing home (I was too busy studying in college in 2004 to watch TV, grandma), or do your fellow citizens a favor and immigrate to a country where your incoherent meth fueled rambles are appreciated.

The level to which this post is infuriating you and inspiring you to invoke references to crack, rehab, and meth is rather alarming.

[Anonymous]

For anyone genuinely curious and interested in thinking outside the box, here's the link to the book (not article).

https://hep.gse.harvard.edu/9781682539521/who-needs-college-anymore/

[Anonymous]

Sure who needs a degree. But how to get and prove those coding skills...