***UPDATE: the comments have been closed on this post***
The implied rule that college is the key to success is being broken. More and more people are finding the courage to battle the ivory tower with story after story of evidence that proves success has little to do with a piece of paper and everything to do with good character, a hard work ethic, the ability to self-educate, and God's blessing on the hands He's given, applied to the jobs He's provided, with the knowledge He's blessed us with.
Proponents of the college experience often say things like, "You need college to get a job," and, "We need more Christians in higher positions."
The first statement is false. How many famous, rich, and successful high school and college dropouts besides Winston Churchill, Benjamin Franklin, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Patrick Henry, Abraham Lincoln and Mark Zuckerberg will it take to debunk this myth?
I look around and see "uneducated" high school dropouts running successful, twenty-five year businesses that support larger-than-average, single income families who send their children to private school. I see college and university grads employed in jobs outside of their field of study. I see college and university grads entering marriage with massive amounts of debt, or putting off marriage and having a family until they can "afford" it. I see mothers working outside the home to ensure that the time and money invested into their diploma is not wasted.
I see all kinds of things that ought to make us pause and consider whether college is as essential as we've come to believe. (Notice I said college, not higher education, or even degrees.)
The second statement, while certainly a noble aspiration, is degrading and constructs a demoralizing and falsified method of rating people's value to society based on their position. Though never spoken outright, the professor is revered as more honorable than the plumber, the lawyer more important than the mechanic, the twenty-three-year-old graduate from teacher's college as more knowledgeable than the veteran homeschool mom of seven. Schooling trumps skills; degrees trump diligence and discipline; education trumps experience.
Should we encourage Christians to pursue "top positions?" Absolutely! But we must not forget that societal reform doesn't need to start at the top. Is the impact of one Christian president more valuable than millions of honest, diligent, hardworking Christian men and women who serve and interact with their local communities every day?
Melanie Ellison addresses all these concerns and many more, including faith and fidelity, in her outrageously honest, eye-opening book, Chucking College.
Birthed from her own experience at a supposedly conservative Christian college, Melanie was determined to achieve a higher education and success without the corruption she encountered there. She dropped out of college and at twenty-three, she is a published author, doula, birth photographer, and runs her own business sewing and selling professionally made, high-quality linens.
Chucking College exposes several dangers we'd do well to assess. Among them:
- A peer-rich environment. "College living promotes a habit of relating almost exclusively with peers. No real-world families with children and/or the elderly are present on campus. Consequently, it is easy for students to forget about lifetime priorities in a four-year bubble of unreality. The absence of wise elders in young people's lives is sadly felt as they aim more and more toward the lowest common denominator instead of growing through the prudent counsel of those who have gone before." pg. 103
- Liberal professors. "In 2003, the Center for the Study of Popular Culture conducted a study of thirty-two elite colleges, and found that of the faculties represented, 'the overall ratio of registered Democrats to registered Republicans was more than 10 to 1.' Compare that to the rest of America's population where closer to half of the people have conservative voter registrations. 'The ratios themselves are impossible to understand in the absence of a political bias.'" pg. 50
- Academic deficiency. "College courses are dumbed down to what used to be a high school level, so that students who do not excel in academics can pass. Yes, people who are not academically inclined go to college (trade schools would be a much better fit for many of them). They don't really belong in a university, but many administrations want to falsely encourage them to continue their studies as long as possible to collect tuition from them." pg. 53
- Astronomical debt. "The seemingly insurmountable debt burden of college makes many young people suicidal and hopeless rather than excited about flourishing in their future vocations... Debt rules a person's life, causing them to make decisions they might not make if they were not under the burden of creditors (such as delaying having children, or having to stick with an hourly wage job instead of seeking to become entrepreneurial, etc.)." pg. 85
- Valuing degrees over skills. "... think creatively to find some way way outside the mainstream "degree-first" mentality. Remember that a degree is an arbitrary measure that may or may not prove a person's expertise as a worker. In the workplace, skills get people hired." pg. 151
Our obsession with college has caused us to underestimate the old, timeless, biblical methods of mentorship, apprenticeship, entrepreneurship, and simply working heartily as unto the Lord (Titus 2:2-10; Proverbs 31; Colossians 3:23). We forget that for those jobs which necessitate a stamped paper, most degrees can be obtained away from campus in half the time, for a fraction of the cost, at your own pace, with a Christian perspective through accredited online schools like CollegePlus.
Chucking College is packed with testimonies of people who decided to forgo the traditional method of achieving perceived success, and the appendix that bursts with a long list of famous college dropouts forces one to reevaluate the purpose of education.
It's not a popular position (though that may be changing, thanks to articles like Matt Walsh's that go viral for their refreshing honesty), but we are not saving for our children's college tuition, or necessarily encouraging them to go.
Our goal is to raise children who trust and fear the Lord, tell the truth, are self-disciplined, get along with other people, work hard, avoid temptation, receive reproof, respect authority, seek godly counsel, and multiply their talents (Proverbs 3:5,6; 9:10,11; 13:15; 10:4; 3:30; 6:6-8; 1:10,15; 12:1; 4:1,2; 11:14; Matthew 25:14-30). This may or may not involve getting a degree, and if it does, there are plenty of better ways to get most of them, as evidenced in Chucking College.
If you want to make a truly educated decision about college, you need to read this book.
*Note: We loved Chucking College so much, we asked Melanie to consider writing for Growing Home! She agreed to become a contributing writer and you can look forward to reading her perspectives on education next month when we re-launch our site, DV.
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