Experiences while young, valuable as adult.

**  On this DE list we talk about aligning our own thinking with our proper
place in earth, and how to persuade the wider public to see that there's
more to human life than acquiring material 'goods', but there's not much
about our responsibility to bring up any of the next generation that are
under our direct care, in ways that should open their eyes to the reality
of life-on-earth.
    Here are some views on that.

At 04:05 13/09/99 -0700, 
John O. Andersen  http://members.xoom.com/joandersen  wrote:

>  Everywhere I go, it seems like parents have bought into the idea 
>(in a big way) that it's now their responsibility to 
>put their children through college. ...
>
>    Back when I went to college and in the decades preceding then, it
>seemed more than a few of us held down jobs while attending classes, and
>shouldered the responsibility to put ourselves through.  Our parents would
>help from time to time, but we knew that if we were to make it through
>(academically and financially), it was largely up to us.  I like to think
>those responsibilities made college more valuable to us, and taught us some
>essential life skills such as dealing with adversity, persistence through
>difficult times, time management, and how to live on a shoestring.
>
>I know today's job market is highly competitive.  I know young people need
>our help and guidance.  But I wonder if funding their way through college
>will be more of a disservice to them in the long run.  I wonder if those
>children who grow up always knowing their parents would bail them out, will
>be sufficiently equipped to deal with the storms of adulthood or the next
>recession which will surely come.  I wonder if they will know how to 
>survive
>difficult times.  Perhaps they'll find a way to survive, but they may not
>have any previous experience to fall back on like we do.
>   [ And later he wrote: ]
>Few children realize that they can construct a very satisfying and joyful 
>life outside of the "work and spend" rubric.

[David: ]
**  The self-confidence and self-reliance that people your age and older
built up, I think comes from a whole lot of experiences not just putting
yourself through college, though that certainly helps since it comes at the
right period in the young person's life.
**  I got my first degree starting in New Zealand in 1955 and finishing in
Canada in May,'61, but there were no costs to pay since I had good enough
grades and the government almost wholly supported the universities then. I
see nothing wrong with collecting sufficient tax money to do things that
way, provided what is paid-for is the bare-bones BSc or BA course, i.e.
improving the intellectual abilities and world-view of all who can benefit
from that (a part of democracy, as I see it), while leaving professional
and other high-cost courses to be funded in other ways, e.g. fees.

**  We "enabled" our three in other ways, such as taking them to Africa and
India before they were 17, where they could see that there were real and
common alternatives to living in a money-focussed economy. Our oldest and
youngest children are currently overseas on their own, quite
self-sufficient, but in both cases using extremely little money on a
day-to-day basis. My wife has provided air-fares to China for our 22yo
youngest to help her becoming proficient in Mandarin, and paid the oldest
for his car (left here when he went to Australia), paying ~$1500 over its
value to give him a nest-egg. 
    Other than that, they're on their own.

**  So, for the standard route, by the standard child in the North American
ghetto, John's point may be right. 
    There are alternatives though, with some imagination and willingness to
take (perhaps bigger) risks.

David.
(David MacClement) d1v9d @ bigfoot.com (remove spaces)
http://www.emucities.com.au/member/davd/index.html#top
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