Great piece. At Llamas aside from the usual crowd of loyal kids all of whom attend Uni I’ve applied for apprentices through the local trades colleges. I have to provide skills and theory in basics of food prep so for me that’s limited as I’m not a restaurant but I am happy to take first year apprenticeships. I get financial support from the government or tax advantages as a result. Hopefully they will be in situ mid September.
One of the main reasons my son is at the school he is, is because they have a long established preference for guilds and apprenticeships rather than Uni. Unlike most of the grammar schools which take some prestige in how many kids they get into top notch Unis. I think if you have a qualified trade you can fall back on this is life with some assurances and make money. Doesn’t stifle your ability to explore life and what’s available. Whereas university puts you in a straight jacket especially in your own mind.
Outside of what you’ve described so accurately I’ve noticed more and more parents now more relaxed about their kids not heading off to Uni. They’ll say to your face it’s because you don’t need a degree anymore unless you’re headed into Law eyc. But I can also sense it’s because no one wants their kid to turn into a lemon sucking virtuous a-hole. Kids swinging off the Centotaph and changing Karl Marx etc. People are “alive” to that nonsense now.
I thought this strategy (the Germans would call it “Augen zu und durch” (eyes closed and through)) would be the best advice for my daughter attempting to complete a English Lit. degree at a well-known European University until it became apparent that this was as dangerous for her as it was, frankly, stupid. Why should she - or anyone - spend their precious youth time pretending to study by learning the “right” answers to a curriculum bereft of meaning for the prize of “a degree” which is as worthless in fact as it was in the harvesting. Why play the game at all? I have written elsewhere that we have urged all our (college aged) offspring to pursue a technical / trade qualification to guild certification standard as the foundation of their preparation for a self-determined life. If they want pack an academic qualification on top of that, they should, but I guarantee that they will be making that choice fully expecting whatever curriculum they choose to be adding significant value to them and their future prospects. Liberal Arts are, sadly, no longer worth a rat’s arse (to translate directly from the Latin) and truly awake students will reject them out of hand. I believe that the collapse of the entire marxist termite infested Higher Education edifice will happen much faster than it took to infest it in the first place and will have to be rebuilt from the foundations upwards. As always love your pieces so I hope you won’t mind me pointing out that your spellchecker did you a disservice by spelling ‘ceded’ as if it were a gardening term.
I remember discussing your daughter's experience. I have one child that completely bailed on university, one that is cleaver enough to get his degree on-line (cost effective and minimal opportunity to indoctrinate) and one that just graduated from a small Christian school in the Midwest, where wokeness was slow to arrive.
I agree the best way to end this madness is to starve the communist beast. However, that wipes out the fun I had with my rental car analogy.
Personally, I am a fan of teaching the liberal arts as historically laid out as the trivium (grammar, logic and rhetoric) and the quadrivium (arithmetic, astronomy, music and geometry.)
Great piece. At Llamas aside from the usual crowd of loyal kids all of whom attend Uni I’ve applied for apprentices through the local trades colleges. I have to provide skills and theory in basics of food prep so for me that’s limited as I’m not a restaurant but I am happy to take first year apprenticeships. I get financial support from the government or tax advantages as a result. Hopefully they will be in situ mid September.
One of the main reasons my son is at the school he is, is because they have a long established preference for guilds and apprenticeships rather than Uni. Unlike most of the grammar schools which take some prestige in how many kids they get into top notch Unis. I think if you have a qualified trade you can fall back on this is life with some assurances and make money. Doesn’t stifle your ability to explore life and what’s available. Whereas university puts you in a straight jacket especially in your own mind.
Outside of what you’ve described so accurately I’ve noticed more and more parents now more relaxed about their kids not heading off to Uni. They’ll say to your face it’s because you don’t need a degree anymore unless you’re headed into Law eyc. But I can also sense it’s because no one wants their kid to turn into a lemon sucking virtuous a-hole. Kids swinging off the Centotaph and changing Karl Marx etc. People are “alive” to that nonsense now.
Perhaps there is hope.
*chanting and *etc loads of typos sorry am headed off to work so rushing!
Let's hope
I thought this strategy (the Germans would call it “Augen zu und durch” (eyes closed and through)) would be the best advice for my daughter attempting to complete a English Lit. degree at a well-known European University until it became apparent that this was as dangerous for her as it was, frankly, stupid. Why should she - or anyone - spend their precious youth time pretending to study by learning the “right” answers to a curriculum bereft of meaning for the prize of “a degree” which is as worthless in fact as it was in the harvesting. Why play the game at all? I have written elsewhere that we have urged all our (college aged) offspring to pursue a technical / trade qualification to guild certification standard as the foundation of their preparation for a self-determined life. If they want pack an academic qualification on top of that, they should, but I guarantee that they will be making that choice fully expecting whatever curriculum they choose to be adding significant value to them and their future prospects. Liberal Arts are, sadly, no longer worth a rat’s arse (to translate directly from the Latin) and truly awake students will reject them out of hand. I believe that the collapse of the entire marxist termite infested Higher Education edifice will happen much faster than it took to infest it in the first place and will have to be rebuilt from the foundations upwards. As always love your pieces so I hope you won’t mind me pointing out that your spellchecker did you a disservice by spelling ‘ceded’ as if it were a gardening term.
Thanks for the edit.
I remember discussing your daughter's experience. I have one child that completely bailed on university, one that is cleaver enough to get his degree on-line (cost effective and minimal opportunity to indoctrinate) and one that just graduated from a small Christian school in the Midwest, where wokeness was slow to arrive.
I agree the best way to end this madness is to starve the communist beast. However, that wipes out the fun I had with my rental car analogy.
Cheers!
Personally, I am a fan of teaching the liberal arts as historically laid out as the trivium (grammar, logic and rhetoric) and the quadrivium (arithmetic, astronomy, music and geometry.)
Amen!