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Old 04-24-2024, 06:23 AM   #7
hairysasquatch
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Location: In the Woods, Central NY
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Quote:
Originally Posted by JeremyNick View Post
I’m educating my kids that college is not a necessity and it’s not necessary to go from high school immediately into college.

We have pounded into kids heads for too long that they’ll never have a future without college and that if they don’t know at 17 what they want to do with their lives, something is wrong with them. I don’t think any of the choices reflect my thoughts but it would generally be

My feeling would be, as a principle no, I encourage them to be thoughtful and patient with their future. The financial and time commitment is too significant to do it just because “you should do it” though I value secondary education.
Counterpoint - for the sake of discussion - could the approach above lead to less engagement at the secondary level? I had a lot of external pressure, did well in HS then flamed out in freshman year, only recovering after I figured out what I was good at and developed the internal motivation to succeed. But without that early pressure, I may not have been positioned to capitalize on that realization.
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