Community

I couldn't sleep last night.  It started out with baby not letting me sleep and when she finally stayed asleep I was up.  Not fun, considering I was planning my return to continuous exercise the next morning.  As I lay there one of the many things that popped into my head was college.  How the prices have gone up, how Jackie will begin to pay for it, and what a great experience it was for me.  I find myself hoping that she follows a similar path that I did.  Community College.

I think Community College, unfairingly, gets a bad rap in our society, and I'm puzzled as to why?  Especially this day in age when college tuition can set you back for YEARS after. 

I remember when I was first looking into colleges (I wanted to play volleyball and be a teacher) I immediately said "I never want to go to a community college."  In the end I had other opportunities to go to school and play volleyball at a four year university.  However, realizing that those schools were going to set me back anywhere from 40,000-100.000+ for for years of school I decided that community college didn't sounds so bad, and I became a member of the Hutchinson Community College Dragon volleyball team.  I recall being slightly embarrassed at first when telling people that's where I was going to go.  "They probably think I couldn't hack it at a real university..."

And you know...some people DID think that. 

Unfair.

First of all I COULD hack it at a "real" university.  I graduated high school with a 3.9 GPA.  I found my educational experience to be really good.  My professors challenged me.  I had to work hard for the grades I got.  And the best part...took the SAME types of classes as my 4-year-institutional-friends for a fraction of the cost.  When I transferred to Emporia State University only ONE class didn't transfer.  (Whoever at ESU decided to name Statistics as "Math for the Secondary Classroom" should be shot...it was STATISTICS!)

I don't understand is how in our society, especially today with protests from students of Ivy League schools who can't find jobs and have enormous debt, that community college isn't considered a good option.

I've heard from high school Seniors that "Oh...I can't go to a community college, I have a 3.898988 GPA"

or...

"Well, he's an athlete so he can just go to a JUCO for the first two years so he doesn't really have to worry about his grades..."

or...

"Community College is not an option, I'm better than that."

Seriously folks.  Really???  Fast forward 10 years out of college... I have 0 student loans.  That's ZERO!  I paid a total of 1,200$ for my Sophomore year of school.  AND met some of the best people I'll ever know during those two years.  AND had the typical "college experience." 

I guess in the end I'm trying to say that Ethan and I are NOT going to be able to pay for our kids college.  We won't.  We are NOT going to take out student loans for them in our name.  (He did go to a 4 year college...graduated with TWO degrees and only had to take out a loan for is final semester...hard work pays off.)  What we will do (unless of course we end up with four super athletic children who all receive full-ride scholarships to the university of their choice...) is encourage a JUCO for the first two years, offer to let them live at home if they go to school around us, and make sure our kids have jobs and know how to be smart on when to save and spend money.  And hope that they come out with a good education and little debt.

Because it is a very scary thought on how expensive college will be by the time our kids are there...