Posted on 02/24/2005 9:12:40 AM PST by Willie Green
A bright, motivated kid in the trades does very well.
bump!
Then the State of Florida offers Bright Futures Scholarships if you make a certain grade on SAT or ACT tests, do some community service (75 hours), and plan to attend a state university (UF, FSU, USF, UCF, etc.)
What sort of SAT score do you have to make. Is this for residents?
Life does not have to be about regular paychecks. Tell her to open a conservatory, it can be your living room, and teach at home.
I'm sorry that I had to leave this thread this morning, and I hope you got some good feedback on your son's vocational choices. He will always be happier and more successful doing what he loves, you know. We are well acquainted with several men who started as mechanics, saved their money, bought their own shops, and two of the three are millionaires. It may not always work that way, but the key is learning your craft, whatever it is, and then establishing your own business instead of working for someone else. The same for two of our friends who are in the air conditioning business in Houston, which as you might guess, is wildly successful!
they are also VERY lucky.
I think that they were very smart. It takes intellegence to see that there is a hole in the market and fill it in a winsome manner.
Just think how much money she could be making, and how much good she could do to mankind, as a professional evolutionist!
We need literature majors not only to translate Geekdom into something comprehensible but also to entertain us when Geekdom is off the table. "Literature of Contemporary Protest" classes do a disservice to all concerned.
I know the military is not for everyone, but if a kid getting ready to enter the world is mentally and physically fit, they ought to at least give it some consideration.
I think an RN can work just about as much as he/she wants because there is such a demand. I know one personally and she could work 24/7 if she could learn to do without sleep. Good pay but hard, demanding work.
And I second the idea that dance is never wasted. I'm in excellent shape for a desk-bound mother of two, and my dance training not only makes it easy for me to do Scottish Country Dancing, it helps with all sorts of other things - like posture, breathing for singing, and my horseback riding and dog handling. I know that sounds odd, but the balance and what I think is called prioperception (the sense of where your body is without looking) are directly translatable to riding. Also, in my dog agility handling I have a better sense of where my body is in relation to the obstacles and my dog, and I can do quick turns and so forth without falling over (something that not everybody can say . . . at every trial we lose one or two people tripping over a jump or just falling down, a disqualification in either case.)
I've been remembering lately a high-school varsity letter type sweater my grandmother knit for me years ago. A great sweater and full of her love, and it fit and was nifty looking too. Wish I still had it.
I started out repairing copier machines at about $8.50 an hour. Listened to people bitch about paper jams all day and came home with filthy hands and clothes (toner, grease). People back then would have said (and did say) that I was in a dead-end job and that I should have gone to college and made something of myself.
Today I run the service department. I have about 80 people under me and I am responsible for $18 million in service revenue each year. My income is comfortable to the point where I can contemplate retirement in my mid-50s - a comfortable retirement at that.
Didn't need a fancy college degree to get to where I am. Just got my hands dirty and worked my way up. There's lots of jobs out there like that. People start out driving forklifts and a few years later, they are running the entire warehouse. People stock shelves at Wal-Mart and in a few years, they are managing the store (Wal-Mart managers make into six figures).
But none of those careers would interest a college-grad. They want a white-collar job right off the bat because they believe that a blue-collar job is beneath them. So they end up stuck in cubicle-land in some faceless office park with some meaningless job title where they either get laid off eventually or they kiss enough butt to get bumped up to the next level of glorified pencil-pushers.
I do tell my self that as well. I homeschool so ballet IS her pyhsical education and a darn good one at that. Strength, flexibility, aerobic, and theater(kind of)too. It will never be a waste to get so much out of her dance experience.
Oh, she hears me tell her that even if dance doesn't turn out for her, I will not think it was a waste because I would rather have her busy with dance than at a mall.
I want to plant that seed now so that she won't feel bad if that is how it all turns out. She loves it so much.
Here's a link:
http://www.firn.edu/doe/brfutures/fasrequire.htm
There are certain requirements for public schooled kids and certain requirements for homeschooled. All explained on this page.
Main difference is homeschooled kids don't have to have met core course GPA (homeschool reqs. are listed under "Other ways to qualify.")
SAT score of 1270 or ACT of 28.
There is also a lower level that offer 75 percent of tuition:
http://www.firn.edu/doe/brfutures/fmsrequire.htm
Another I noted when I looked at these pages, you don't have to go to a state school, Bright Futures can also be used at private universities in the state.
>>Didn't need a fancy college degree to get to where I am. Just got my hands dirty and worked my way up. There's lots of jobs out there like that.
It's true one can make loads of cash if they rise up in the blue collar world.
However, just like in the white collar world, there are very few positions available. What a degree does for one, in the long run, is gives them a better *average* salary than blue collar jobs. Also, with many blue collar jobs, the longer you are on a job the more you get paid -- but if you get laid off, good luck finding a job at the same pay...
As a white collar worker, I see nothing wrong with blue collar jobs. What's most important is that one is happy...
Like I said, a degree is a good insurance plan, but it is not an assurance plan... And unless I was trying to get into wall street or mega firms in managerial training positions, I'd skip the ivy league schools.. You don't know how many kids graduate, work at $50k jobs, and have $1000 a month student loan payments...
I find that very strange.
From a lawyer, that sounds like a threat ....
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