Are parents justified in pressuring their teenage children to get a college education?

by JET Carney

Created on: July 11, 2009   Last Updated: July 19, 2009

"Dat boy of mine better do good. He don't, gonna snatch him bald-headed! He do good though. He's in his last year of medical school here. He's making his momma right proud."

The speaker was one of the women who cleaned the dorms at UCLA. I happened upon her returning to my room when class had dismissed early. She had seen the uniform in the closet and asked if it was mine. "Ohh, you Marine man!"

Our conversation drifted to our topic children and college education. I discovered that she worked three jobs a tad over 18 hours a day so her son could go to medical school. "Only one more year," she sighed. "Gettin' too old for this. Then he's on his own."

I was a student but not a good student. Smart and bone lazy don't go well together. It wasn't until I was in college after being booted twice that I met a professor who finally tripped the "learning trigger." My other problem was I lean toward the Socratic method: give me a task and let me find the answers. I hated being Patrick Parrot. There was no challenge. While I didn't graduate magna cum laude, I did graduate with a membership in the American Academy of Forensic Sciences, a published book, and a ticket to graduate school. All things are possible.

The day before yesterday, a minimum of a high school education was mandatory. Yesterday it had become the baccalaureate. Today it's a master's degree. Even farming and construction have become high-tech.

Are children learning more from the additional academic work? Put another way, does today's high schooler possess more knowledge than their parents did at the same educational level? Children are spending longer to achieve the same knowledge level elongating the academic process. Some blame it on low-level education during the grades. College freshman and sophomore years have become remedial to catch up with a basic knowledge level. Junior and senior years remain to teach the candidate's chosen major. Some fields consider that scant time and have hiked a terminal degree to a master's for minimum employment. Advancement requires a doctorate. Where do we go tomorrow? What follows a doctorate? This thinking cheapens education, not improves it. Academicians and sociologists offer a myriad of reasons in support. I disagree for it doesn't serve industry and certainly doesn't serve the child's preparation for today's workplace.

Pressure, cajole, urge, threats are word plays upon a theme and because of that they will be passed by. Counseling, pointing

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