>>>This fascinates me and is a big difference between us, but I don't know whether it's one of culture or religion. My children were raised knowing they were going to college, and with an expectation that graduate school would follow. If one of them had wanted not to go to college, he would have had to come up with a really good reason and a plan for what he was going to do instead.
>>>
>>>Pretty much everyone in my community expects their children to go to college. In fact, my siblings (one brother, one sister) and I were also raised with the expectation of college.
>>>
>>>Tamar
>>
>>I grew up that was as well (being expected to attend college.) I'm not discouraging them from attending college - just not making that a requirement. You have to remember that my kids are still young. My two youngest daughters (7 and 11) want a job a Taco Bell when they grow up - so - they really haven't begun to think in those terms yet. My oldest daughter is thinking about nursing school - to which I am doing all I can to encourage that. My son wants to get into computers in some way.
>
>And my younger son at 10 wanted to be "an affable waiter" (after we had one at a resort). But both kids knew that high school wasn't the end of their education. The older one is now a PhD student in Physics and the younger will be a junior in college in the fall. At least for now, he's majoring in Computer Science.
>
>Tamar

Wow! PhD in Physics - that make my brain hurt just thinking about that. I hope they do well in their careers.