Our children

Yesterday I had the opportunity to sit and chat with my older brother, Dominick. Both of us have sons who are currently sophomores in HS. He asked if my son Ryan had given any thought to colleges - what he wants to major in, etc. We talked about different majors and colleges, and he commented on how his advice to his son has changed in the past two years. Having worked on Wall Street for almost 20 years, and being very successful in business, up until a year ago his advice would have been to go to college with a business major and then head into a large company. That was 2 years ago. Now he has spent the past two years worrying what the future in his company holds for him - will it close completely? will he be one of the ones laid off so it doesn't close? His new advice - find a career where life is stable - teaching, police work, some type of public service. The pay may never be what he earns, but it is enough to support a family.

And there it all lies. As parents, I think we all want more for our children than we had for ourselves. We try to help them learn from our mistakes - they can make their own mistakes but hopefully not the same ones we made. My father, forced to build a successful life without the advantage of a High School education defied the odds. He worked 12-16 hour shifts his entire life so we would never have to do that. He pushed for us to go to college so we didn't have to work shift work as he did. We may have our own problems - but he tried to advise us so we wouldn't meet the same obstacles he did.

And here we are now as parents. Realizing that "some" education is not enough to get a job in this job market. That any HS education is not enough to get into some of the stronger colleges if that is where your child wants to go. That the trades that need to be mastered are more and more difficult as the years pass. Most jobs - from a mechanic to an accountant - need computer skills. Many jobs that you used to be able to get with a HS diploma, such as working in a warehouse, now require a second language, and again, computer skills. Jobs aren't what they used to be - the skills needed to get them have moved to a whole new level - and we need to prepare our children to go into that new workforce. Our language programs are being cut each year due to funding. Our computer science and enrichment programs are being cut each year due to funding. Are we still preparing them for the workforce? Are we as a community learning from our mistakes and advising our children so they don't make the same ones?

I agree, taxes put a burden on us all, especially in hard times as we are experiencing. But unless we want our children to fall back to the hardships of our parents, we need to educate them well so they are prepared and capable of finding a job and supporting their families. Doing this means really thinking about their futures. What is it they need to succeed? Not what did we need to succeed - because life isn't what it was 30 years ago.