It’s Graduation Time: 3 Key Points Catholic Parents Should Consider Before Sending their Children to College

Please pardon my absence from the blog for the past few months, but we here at Fix the Family practice what we teach. I have a highly seasonal occupation that “taxes” my time the first 4 months of the year as well as the end of every year, and my family is totally dependent upon my occupation for its sustenance so that my wife can tend to the higher matters of being a wife and mother in the home and is not distracted by outside employment. Nevertheless, I am back. Incidentally, this also comes at a time when my first book will be soon published and available to you, and that has occupied a great deal of my time with the Apostolate as well, in addition to the normal duties of being a husband and father for my wife and children. Be sure to also LIKE our Facebook page and follow us there. This is our principal marketing and outreach vehicle, and we are always posting and sharing relevant content there even during my busy seasonal time. All is well at the Citadel I am happy to report, and we are progressing through life in dramatic fashion.

That being said, my 3rd son is graduating from high school next month. So, as has become a bit of a tradition in our family, we together went yesterday to acquire a cell phone for him, what I call a “not-smart phone,” or what he says is properly called a “basic phone.” Yes, he is about to be 18 years old and is now getting his first cell phone which is not a smart phone. Now I know that will strike the world with sheer amazement and disbelief, but this is part of the method to the process we have in raising our children. No we do not go the way of the world, and by the time they get a cell phone, they really need one. I realize that parents who send their children to school feel a justification for them having one, but I’m still not convinced about the need for smart phone except from a peer pressure standpoint which is not justifiable. I can see no way in justifying the astronomical cost of a smart phone (principally the monthly data service charges) for what simply amounts to be a toy. Strong deliberate parents should heed this example. For those ADULT children still under my care (and roof) we’ve found a good compromise for those interested in the wireless data connectivity to be a non-phone device (i-pod touch) that uses wi-fi when available that won’t require monthly data service charges.

So we went to one of the big service providers yesterday, or several I should say, and picked up for him a non-smart/basic phone. So the young lady who was probably in her early 20’s started asking questions. She was complimentary in a parent bringing his son at nearly 18 years old to get a phone and not diving in to the i-phone 7 immediately. I thanked her, and pointed out it is our method to gradually step into and through things of this nature more later than earlier. She went on to say she had served a mother earlier in the day who was purchasing an i-phone 7 for her 12-year-old daughter, par for the course in America. (Incidentally, I have never owned an Apple product more than a week [0 compatibility and 100% proprietary were my principal issues], but I was holding Apple stock when the i-phone first came out and made a killing.) So, in her questioning she asked if he had a job. He said “yes.” She said that was good. She asked who he worked for; he told her. She said that was good. I interjected with a question of if they were hiring. That took her by surprise, and she hesitatingly said “Well…yes, but I believe you have to have a degree to work here.” I was all astonishment. I literally LOL’d (laughed out loud) in a cell phone outlet. I said “WHAT?! You have to have a degree to sell cell phones?” Then I asked her “How do you use your degree in this job?” She said frankly and matter-of-fact-ly “My degree has nothing to do with this job. I was a political science/government major.”

BINGO! ladies and gentlemen. Yes, graduation season is upon us and it give us a great opportunity to consider those profound points in our article 6 Reasons (+2) to NOT Send Your Daughter to College. The value of a college degree has been severely depleted in addition to those 8 reasons, so much so that to work retail for some outlets it is “required.”
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