Considerations of Education & Self-Sufficiency

Photo by: Dennis Jarvis

I can’t believe I’m writing this!  I’m sure the Education Fairies are going to come down and beat me with their “Board of Education.” 🙂

Have we reached Peak Education?  We discuss Peak Oil, Peak Food, Peak Water, Peak (fill-in-the-blank).  Have we considered Peak Education?

When my son was graduating from high school, everyone wanted to know where he was going to go for college.  Everybody just assumed that he was going to college.  In fact, young people who choose NOT to go to college might get met with funny stares.  As Americans, somewhere along the line, we began to believe that going to college was necessary for a healthy, successful life.  You go to school, go to college, get a job, get married, have kids, repeat the cycle, etc…

People get a weird look in their eyes, especially because I’m an educator, when I say that if I had to do it all over again, knowing what I know, I might pursue being a plumber.  You are always going to need plumbers!  Even in a SHTF scenario, people are going to need plumbers!

The fact is, I didn’t need a graduate degree to do my job as an administrator.  (Oh crap, here come the fairies!!!!)  The fact is, there are many jobs out there that having a degree wouldn’t mean a darn thing.  But, employers believe that someone who finishes school can finish any job.  I once had a professor tell my class that having a Ph.D. doesn’t mean anything.  Anyone who can write and attend class can get one.  I thought that was kind of crazy back then.  I believe him now!

As I get older and I learn more about self-sufficiency/self-reliance, I’ve done a lot of soul searching on what is really “required” for life and what I/we should truly value.  Recently I shared a video on living the Simple Life.  That speaks to me!  When you couple that with the “True” cost of college and what Michael Snyder has written about student loans, young people might think twice before saddling themselves with a huge amount of debt with no promise of job to pay it back.

My son does attend the local community college.  I’m proud of him!  He is working, taking double shifts if they come available, tutoring kids on the side and taking a full load.  He is not taking out student loans and getting into debt.  I know he is going to be ok!

I do recommend attending college for some things.  People that know me know that I always say that if you are going to go full steam ahead and attend college, you should major in engineering or the medical field.  (Sidenote: I think another up and coming field, esp. because of our new healthcare system is going to be alternative medicine.)  The graphic below might help sway those intent on going to college on which major to choose.

What do you think?

Source: Major Decisions: Choose Wisely

This article first appeared on Ed That Matters.

Get updates in your email when a new article is posted. Join the Newsletter or grab the RSS Feed.

If you enjoyed the article, please vote for the site at Top Prepper Websites.

Copyright – Content on Ed That Matters (unless the work of a Third-Party) may be reproduced in part or whole with attribution through a link to www.edthatmatters.com. If you are interested in a Third Party article, please contact the author for permission.