Like some middle class kids in my generation, education was a high priority. In my house it was emphasized as the doorway to upward mobility. (The idea of learning for learning\’s sake was something I discovered later.) If I wanted a "good job," I\’d better — at least — get an undergraduate degree. It wasn\’t a question of if I\’d go to college, but where, as far as my parents were concerned.
"Where you\’ll go," I recall my dad saying, "I don\’t know. But you\’re going to somebody\’s university." My dad\’s desire for me to go to college was probably due in part to his never having been. The son of sharecroppers, he left the far via the draft, and never looked back. Despite his lack of a college degree (he did earn technical school degree, as I recall), my dad managed to find a "good job" and make a "good living" to provide for his family. He believed getting a college education would help me do the same and do better.
My dad did well despite not going to college, and I believe I\’ve benefited immensely because of the college education he helped me get. I doubt I\’d be doing the kind of work I\’m doing without it. But in the current economy, stories like my dad\’s and mine may be fewer and far between.
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