To more school or not to more school?

4/3/19

Rant Blong by Liz Ramos

I have five years worth of college experience. I only had the chance to obtain two associates and a diploma for massage therapy thanks to lack of credit transfers from moving so much married to the military. I love my job, when I am able to work. My technical degree helps me make anywhere from $20,000 a year part time to $90,000 a year full time. That is a magical thing! I love that Americans have that opportunity to go to college for a year or two and be able to obtain employment that can raise a family without struggles.

There is one thing I have learned in my short life and it is nothing is ever promised to children in this country except an education. (The state forces kids to go to school.) Everything you have can be taken away. You can get fired from your job, your marriage can fail, your mortgage company can take your home, your car can get reposessed, CPS can take your kids, or you can get locked up in jail and loose your freedoms you once had. The only thing the gov’t, state, and society cannot take away from you is your education and your memories. No one can come and take away your high school diploma. No one can take back the bachelors you earned. It is yours forever. Whether you can do something with it or use it or not, it will always be yours.

I have my ear out in Kingsville. I have heard a lot of people at the top of the chain at KISD preaching “some kids arent meant to go to college.” I wish we would all stop this narrative. Although this is very true for some, I do not believed this should be a narrative that should be pushed or expressed on a regular basis.

Yes, maybe you aren’t capable of going to college. Maybe you have no interest in it. Maybe you cannot afford it. Maybe you want to possibly go later in life. Whatever the case, I hope no one thinks they cannot. If you will it, it can be possible! I have spent many years in school and I still do not have much to show for it. I can easily run a business, work in marketing or advertisement, I would murder an HR job, easily, I’d be a beast of a paralegal, a nurse’s aide, court reporter/stenographer, teacher, etc, but I have no valid degree for any of that! If I went to apply for jobs at KISD right now, I could do ANY job (except nursing, maintenance/repair/drive a bus/biligual teacher) they have listed. But they would laugh at my resume. Having a college degree is important.

My husband went to school, graduated, and now is employed in a job that doesn’t require the degree he obtained. Depressing sometimes because of the time and money spent to get it, but we will always have a plan B, plan C, plan D, and so on. He is the first in his blood line to obtain a college degree and he should be proud. I am jealous. I wanted to be a high school health/science teacher. I can make more money doing something else, but I would love to be a teacher! If I will it I will eventually do that.

I am also a silent advocate of no forced school. Find me somewhere in the constitution where it states that the gov’t can force individuals to go to school and where they have to pay for it? Education is not a right in the constitution. If you look at the preable, we have a right to obtain one, if we want to. There are many brilliant men and women who have had little scholary education but have changed the course of how we live today. Take Benjamin Franklin for example. He dropped out of school at 10, started the first ever franchise in the US and wrote some of the Declaration of Independence amongst other accomplishments.

Stop saying some people weren’t meant to go to college. It is possible. All things are possible. Don’t completely count out a 4 year college! Encourage them to go to a two year college and transfer if they still want to persue more. If they are forced to go to school by the state, give them the best damn education they can get! Inspire, encourage, articulate the future to our young ones better.

End rant.