Speaking of Education…

…here’s another article that is related to examining higher education.  Or more specifically challenging the assumed notion that a college education is always the best way to begin (or continue, or further) your career and life in general.

A major technology innovator and venture capitalist is offering $100,000 to young people to drop out of college and develop their idea.  Twenty young entrepreneurs will be offered $100,000 grants if they drop out of college to develop their products rather than delaying doing so until they graduate.  Not surprisingly, this has generated various opinions and reactions, from those dismayed at the greed and short-sightedness that they see in the offer, and from those who see this as a perfectly legitimate, and perhaps even altruistic effort to help not just the entrepreneurs but society and mankind in general.

Would I encourage my son or daughter to consider an offer like this?  Sure.  If they had an idea that seemed strong enough to possibly work, and if that idea was being vetted by better minds than mine as well.  I want my kids to understand the potential helpfulness of a college education, but I won’t raise them with the stated goal of going to college.  I hope that I’ll be flexible enough to roll with whatever direction my kids want to go at that point in their lives – whether it’s into a trade or the workforce directly, or into college.  Hopefully they’ll also be willing and able to hear my input on the subject along the way, with the benefit of my experience in going to college right out of high school but not graduating until an unusually long time afterwards (12 years, to be exact!), then going on comparatively quickly to complete graduate work.  

What will you tell your kids?