Big Babies

National Review Online ^ | 6/2/2005 | Catherine Seipp

[JakeWyld]

Awesome post--to which i reply "Guilty".

I had to wake up and realize that people in this world have real problems yet they don't spend their time whining about it. They get off their backsides and get moving.

[commonasdirt]

My son got his bachelors in Japanese Studies 3 years ago Joined the AF and got an AA in Korean. He's now a translator. 15 months to go and then he will go to a Japanese University for his Masters. Paying for it himself. he still laughs at his peers at the UofA taking Art History....."Majoring in starvation" as he puts it.

[RichInOC]

But then comes the real kicker: Alex Lee has been accepted, with a financial-aid package, to Pitzer, an excellent southern California school very similar to Reed in that it’s a small, prestigious liberal arts college. He's also been accepted at USC, a fine university that hasn't made him a financial-aid offer yet, but (as the Times piece mentioned in passing) is one of the most well-endowed schools in the country and probably will.

Claremont Colleges and USC. And the little bastard has the gonads to complain about being on the wait list at Reed.

[laughing my gonads off...]

[Axenolith]

With respect to cars, you might want to at least have them kick in a good percentage. I knew innumerable kids in high school and early college who were given new, expensive, autos and subsequently trashed them, some repeatedly. I worked like hell to save for a car, and was, at the time, majorly surprised when the Parents kicked in 1/3 of the $2600 on my birthday. I ended up having that car for 7 years, and along the way learned proper "care and feeding" to the point that I had 6 others by the time I graduated college.

[WOSG]

Yup, we all are guilty. Life is too good for us NOT to take our blessings for granted.

Here's a wakeup call to those who lack some perspective ...

http://freedomstruth.blogspot.com/

[Torie]

I did lots of homework in grammar school (an elite private school). I was quite literate by sixth grade. I still have an essay I wrote on the atom (you know, nucleus, proton, electron, negative charge, positive charge, nuetral charge, how the number of electrons defines the element, and all that; I find to this day that it reads rather smoothly, and my penmanship has gone way downhill since then). In the 7th grade I went after describing the theories of the origin of the universe (in those days, the big bang was just one theory, rather than THE theory).

It was the homework that did it, writing essay after essay, and having to read, and then read some more. I hated it at the time (my mommy helped me some through the 4th grade, when I decided relying on mommy was unmanly and degrading), and it was painful, but it made me the master of circumlocution as it were that I am today. It also teaches some decent work habits. Acquiring good habits is work, yes work, lots of work. Homework is good. No pain, no gain. Deal with it.

[HitmanLV]

I think a person learns a lot of maturity from a stint in the service, or working for a while. Kudos to your son!

[WOSG]

What's the real LMAO point is that Reed, last I checked, was a leftist indoctrination center ... why p*ss away $100,000 on something you can get for free by subscribing to DU and watching Farenheit 911???

[Torie]

Reed has been a Bohemian type of place since rocks cooled. It is the right place for a few, the wrong place for most.

[Torie]

Torie's theory of education expounded. :)

[knews_hound]

Blog fodder bump.

Cheers,

knews hound

http://knewshound.blogspot.com/

[Chewbacca]

I owe my college education to environmentalists.

Yup, you heard that right.

You see, I went to college in 1991, just a few years after the wacky environmentalists got the stupid spotted owl on the endangered list.

This caused Weirhauser to close thousands of land they owned for logging. Wood prices went up. Private property owners called in the local tree cutters who then proceeded to strip cut their properties and sell the lumber. (Did I mention that private property owners don't replant trees that are cut like a lumber company would).

Anyway, my father called in the tree cutters to log 4 acres of our property at that time. Made enough money to help finance my brother and I at college.

We never replanted those trees, but turned the land into pasture.

Thank you crazy environmentalists for helping me get through college through the destruction of the trees on our private property!

:)

[jamaly]

I married my high school sweetheart the day after graduation in 1969. He had just finished Navy boot camp and we knew we had a guaranteed income for the next four years. He didn't want "his wife" to work, he felt that the husband should be the bread winner. He had 1 1/2 years of college before the Navy and immediately went back to college right out of the Navy. He also worked 35 hours a week as a welder (a trade he learned in the Navy) and received the GI Bill. On semester break and summers he worked 60 hours a week. He paid for his entire education himself without taking a single penny from anyone, including me. I stayed home and raised our 2 children. We bought a brand new home while he was in college and a brand new car. He never needed a student loan and he graduated debt free and on the Dean's list for that final semester. On Memorial Day we celebrated our 36th wedding anniversary. I have worked occasionally over the years, he still doesn't really want me to work; but, he has mellowed somewhat. He has given me and our children a wonderful life. Whatever you do, please don't anybody ever liberate me. I know when I have it made!

[hardworking]

But what is it with these aging baby boomers who still help their high-school kids out of schoolwork jams and generally continue to treat them like helpless baby birds?

This is purely a coincidence, but today I was getting a haircut and the hairdresser told me the following story which opened my eyes as to why I have completely given up on hiring caucasian young people when job vacancies occur. She told me that her husband had, through business contacts, gotten a job for their 17 year old son at a coffee shop. She laughingly told me that he had lasted two days on the job because his superiors had asked this kid to sweep the floor, wipe down tables and wash some dishes. He informed his mother that he has never done those things at home so why on earth would he do them in public? It seemed perfectly logical to both him and his mother, and solved one puzzle I have struggled with for some time. Our kids are worthless because they are being raised that way.

[SuziQ]

Our #1 son got a full ride at UMass Amherst. He was accepted at a couple of other 'prestigious' private colleges, but he judged that it would be more advantageous for him to finish undergraduate school debt-free. He's in his 2nd yr. of Cornell Law School and has taken out loans to pay for the tuition. We're helping him from time to time to cover rent, food, car repairs, etc, but he understands that it's 'on the tab', and he expects to repay us when he gets his first job.

#2 son didn't receive any scholarships, though his first year he received half the tuition in financial aid. After that, he did the full amount on loans. He finished in 3 1/2 yrs. to reduce the amount he'd be in debt when he was done, but he worked hard enough in that time to get two majors. He's now in Grad School at UT Austin, and thankfully, got a fellowship for that. He'll be paying the loans back when he's all done with school. Again, if he needs any extra cash, we'll gladly lend it, again 'on the tab'.

We told them both, and their younger brother and sister that we intended to have some cash on hand with which to retire, so we weren't paying for their college tuitions. We paid for them to attend Catholic Schools, except for the three years I homeschooled the younger two, and the final two years I'm homeschooling our daughter. But even then, she's taking classes at the local Community College, so there's tuition there.

I believe that if they think the onus is on them to repay the loans, they won't spend all their time goofing off, and will take their education seriously. It's worked so far. ;o)

[Go_Raiders]

were given new, expensive, autos and subsequently trashed them...

If you want to teach your child a very important lesson, you buy a 10 year old Ford Taurus with about 100k miles for about $3000. Let them drive it, them paying for maintenance, gas and insurance, for 4 years, then sell it for about $2000.

Cost of ownership - aboout $250 per year. When they start shopping for their own car, $21/month may just register in their newly educated brains as they look at new cars going leasing for $400/month.

[Axenolith]

ARF! Don't forget to introduce them to the wonders of the modern automotive timing belt...

[JakeWyld]

Thank you for the link.

[Troublemaker]

But what is it with these aging baby boomers who still help their high-school kids out of schoolwork jams and generally continue to treat them like helpless baby birds? Does it have something to do with the parents’ belonging to the when-am-I-gonna-start-feeling-like-a-grownup generation? Do they therefore assume that their own kids should never be expected to behave like grownups?

So is the author onto something here? Is it that they're baby boomers or that they're aging/older parents? I am constantly amazed by the number of uptight older (agewise) parents (this is a generalization, not a rule)

[Arpege92]

"I was wondering why so often goodness is associated with good grades?"

Good question....I have no idea. You'd have to get to know my son to understand that he is a good kid. His kindness and concern for other's has always been who he is and even if he did make bad grades in school....it wouldn't change how I feel about him. He takes after his father (thank God)! He's a natural around people and generally brings out the best in everyone....even me. :-)