I have my bachelors + and DH has a PhD. We went down this path with our oldest. He did eventually decide to work on a degree PT but I remember the 'let down'. My youngest has serious LDs and I assume he will not attend college(but will support him should he make that choice)
The real problem is that we as parents 'assume' our kids will go to college and I can clearly recall reading on a board that 'duh-of course kids whose parents have college degrees will go to college". Everyone chimed in to agree. It wasnt directed at me(wasnt this board)but it was very hurtful. I felt I must have obviously done something very, very wrong to have this very capable son who had no interest in school
Since then,I have stepped past that assumption and started looking. This just isnt all that uncommon. You will certainly find many similar stories on this board but it's out there in our daily world as well-we just need to look. It's like anything-you don't notice new car models until you start looking for a car yourself.
I can rattle off the names of several university professors who have at least one child who did not go the college route.
He may decide to go to college at 20, 25 or 30. He may decide to go his senior year and need to do a semester of math/science catch up at the community college after graduation.
Lots of paths-doesn't really matter which one he takes as long as he has a destination. I worry more about the kids who have no clue what they want to do(and all 3 of mine have been or currently are in that place)
Now that you've gotten all these wonderful words of advice and encouragement for your son, let me just get something out of my system. I think to say that a young man who has chosen a skilled trade as a possible profession for the rest of his life is somehow choosing a "low" career is, frankly, elitist and condescending and in many ways insulting. People who do not have degrees but who make an honest living are no less worthy of our respect than some learned professor or engineer or lawyer. In fact they are the vast majority of our society and the people that keep our countries running. God bless all those folks, including myself and many of my collegues, who had the aptitude and desire to get a university degree and professional education. But we only did what we wanted to do and were capable of doing and that doesn't make us any better than the person who cuts our meat at the grocery store or the person that processes our paperwork in a government office or the person who takes our order at a customer service desk. The measure of worth in a man or woman is not the number of degrees they have but how they treat others and how they contribute to our society as a whole. My truck driver dad and my construction labourer husband and my factory working mom don't have degrees but they are good people who have raised strong families and paid their taxes and helped many people in their lives.
I don't think any less of a mailman, auto mechanic or roofer than I do of my physician. But I still think, given the info in the original post, that I'd make sure DS understood how making this decision at age 16 could affect him.
If, after the employees were working for 10 years in their respective careers, we were to poll 1000 "smart" (like the DS in the original post) auto mechanics and ask them how many wished they had gone to college to become mechanical engineers; and then poll 1000 engineers and ask them how many wished they had skipped college and become auto mechanics, I think we know what the results would be. It's that foresight that a "smart" 16 year-old sophomore probably does not have, and talking about it with him is a parent's job. jmho.
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Personally I'd be very supportive and encouraging.
I have my bachelors + and DH has a PhD. We went down this path with our oldest. He did eventually decide to work on a degree PT but I remember the 'let down'. My youngest has serious LDs and I assume he will not attend college(but will support him should he make that choice)
The real problem is that we as parents 'assume' our kids will go to college and I can clearly recall reading on a board that 'duh-of course kids whose parents have college degrees will go to college". Everyone chimed in to agree. It wasnt directed at me(wasnt this board)but it was very hurtful. I felt I must have obviously done something very, very wrong to have this very capable son who had no interest in school
Since then,I have stepped past that assumption and started looking. This just isnt all that uncommon. You will certainly find many similar stories on this board but it's out there in our daily world as well-we just need to look. It's like anything-you don't notice new car models until you start looking for a car yourself.
I can rattle off the names of several university professors who have at least one child who did not go the college route.
He may decide to go to college at 20, 25 or 30. He may decide to go his senior year and need to do a semester of math/science catch up at the community college after graduation.
Lots of paths-doesn't really matter which one he takes as long as he has a destination. I worry more about the kids who have no clue what they want to do(and all 3 of mine have been or currently are in that place)
I have a neighbor who did the votech education in high school.
I don't see any problem w/ your DS' career choice.
This thread has surely taken a turn!
I don't think any less of a mailman, auto mechanic or roofer than I do of my physician. But I still think, given the info in the original post, that I'd make sure DS understood how making this decision at age 16 could affect him.
If, after the employees were working for 10 years in their respective careers, we were to poll 1000 "smart" (like the DS in the original post) auto mechanics and ask them how many wished they had gone to college to become mechanical engineers; and then poll 1000 engineers and ask them how many wished they had skipped college and become auto mechanics, I think we know what the results would be. It's that foresight that a "smart" 16 year-old sophomore probably does not have, and talking about it with him is a parent's job. jmho.
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http://www.pnhp.org/news/2009/october/meet_the_new_health_.php
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQTBYQlQ7yM
Thank you diamond!
Hindsight is an interesting phenomenon Janet.
> >I'm wondering if there may be a bit less rebellion
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http://www.pnhp.org/news/2009/october/meet_the_new_health_.php
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQTBYQlQ7yM
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