University Education.. Is it worth it???

Why do many of us insist that their children get the very best academic education??

Why do they insist that their children have to go to university and get a degree??

Why is it that most of us seem fixated on wanting their children to only become academic professionals, and nothing else??

Is the professional academic route really the best and only way available for our children to succeed in life???

Do we genuinely believe that those career academics and professionals are satisfied with their lives???

Are they really happy?? What do they gain from their careers that makes them so??

Is it their job satisfaction, financial security, career progression or mere respect and appreciation by others??

Of course, we all want the best for our children. We all want them to end up much better than we have ever become. Somehow however,  most of us seem to think that this is only achievable by getting our children to pursue an academic university career!!!

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That is OK so far... We are generally free to believe and do what we like..

But....

Does this mean that those of us who aren't academics or professionals lack happiness, money or career progression??

I certainly don't think so....

Or...

Perhaps academic professionals are happier and enjoy more money and respect than those who aren't??

I don't think so either!!

In fact, the majority of the most financially successful people in the world have never been to university at all!!!

Yet, this has not stopped them from gaining huge success, respect and appreciation throughout their non-academic and non professional careers....

Have we carefully though of what are we really gaining by sending our children to university???

Are we really doing the best for them???

Or are we simply wanting to feel better, and in so doing are happily making our children pay the price by pursuing careers that they were not consulted on, and never wanted in the first place???

In my view, the importance of university education has been so over-inflated for a very long time, so much so that it has become embedded in the minds of most people as an inevitable ingredient of success, which I profoundly disagree with...

We need a mixture of a variety of communication, social and interactive skills in order to succeed in life, most of which are not taught in universities....

The single most important factor that determines whether we succeed in life or not is who we are, not what we have studied in university....

Therefore, let us listen to our children and take their views seriously. Let us encourage and support them in taking any career step towards doing something they love and enjoy, and resist the urge to force them into taking a career they hate and endure.