Where Do Dreams Begin?

Why the U.S. Needs to Fix the Student Loan Crisis Fast

According to all long term employment forecasts, most jobs in the future will require a college degree. No matter what politicians say, they cannot bring manufacturing back to the U.S. The reason isn’t political. Most such jobs are now being performed by robots.

This means the current educational level of most Americans needs to be improved. Although nine out of ten adults have a high school diploma, only three out of ten have a college degree. One in ten has earned an advanced degree.

This is bad news for the country, but it's good news for the individual who finds a way through college. There's less competition for higher paying jobs. The number of college grads isn't keeping pace with the increase of jobs requiring a college education. Add to this the number of college educated Baby Boomers retiring in the next few years, and there will soon be more jobs than people qualified for them.

Again this is bad news for the country, but it should be good news for those who plan ahead, do the right things to make college a reality and graduate degree in hand. The best way to do this without saddling oneself with college loan debt is to apply to accredited colleges that are low in cost. It's also wise to apply for enough college scholarships to cover tuition, fees, books, etc.

If nothing is done to make it financially feasible for more students to go to college, the U.S. will have lots people in search for jobs that don't exist, and lots of jobs looking for people to fill them who don't exist either.



For more information, you'll want my new book, Free College Awareness, coming soon from Griffin Publishing and Watering Seeds. It shows how many students avoid needing college loans; available soon to families of Pre-K through High School students.

You are reading from the blog: http://www.roadtofreecollege.com

Photo Credit: Pixabay

Why Children Should Study Music

Important Tip to Reach Your Goals

Valuable Advice from My School Superintendent

I grew up with the space program. My father worked for North American Aviation, which broke the sound barrier. They became Rocketdyne and sent men into space. Eventually, with another name change, they put men on the moon. It was no surprise then I became a candidate for NASA’s Teacher in Space Program.

The application was grueling. Out of 50,000 teachers who requested one, only 10,000 were returned. Mine was one of them. One task I had to complete before doing so was to acquire three letters of recommendation. I received one from my school principal, the city manager where I lived (and was a civic leader), and one from my school superintendent.

I’ll never forget the lesson I learned when I went to pick up my letter from my superintendent. His letter was glorious, but it was what he said to me that has made a significant difference in my life.

He said I was doing way too much. I was very active at my school, in my school district, my home and my city. He thought I was participating in some activities I didn’t even care about. He was right. I was often appointed to tasks and committees and given responsibilities that were of no interest to me.

He told me to just say NO. I had heard that before. I had seen the message on billboards. But I never thought I had permission to use the word. He told me to say No to every request, unless it was something I loved doing. I explained some of the “requests” were from my boss. He said it didn’t matter. Find a way. Use the word.

I was lucky to hear this, but in an odd coincidence, later that week I was doing a lesson on three French verbs, vouloir, pouvoir and devoir. The text gave a simple example of how these verbs can be used. It translates to, “I would love to, but, I’m sorry, I can’t, I have to …” This phrase has saved me lots of energy, exasperation and arguments.

I began to use it, still do. But I also taught it to friends and students. It’s a way to excuse yourself from anything you wish to avoid without causing animosity in others. I now do only what fits my personal goals and say no to the rest. I didn’t go into space, but attempting to do so provided advice I have benefitted from for decades.


For more information, you'll want my new book, Free College Awareness, coming soon from Griffin Publishing and Watering Seeds. It shows how to avoid needing college loans; available soon to families of Pre-K through High School students.

You are reading from the blog: http://www.roadtofreecollege.com

Photo Credit: Google Images

How to Reach Your Goals

How to Reach Your Goals

Will Technology Steal your Child’s Future?

It just might. Studies have been conducted. Facts were collected, and the results published. Politicians have made several speeches sounding warnings. They all reveal the same thing, 40% to 80% of current jobs (depending upon the country in which you live) will be lost to artificial intelligence and robotics in the next twenty years. But is anyone paying attention?

The disappearing jobs are in certain fields. Of course, manufacturing and any job performed using patterns or manipulation of objects are already gone or nearly so. Retail sales personnel, secretaries, office workers and truck drivers are in the process of seeing their jobs automated too. Overall, any occupation that does not involve critical thinking is in danger. More specifically, if a job currently pays less than $20.00 an hour, you can expect to see a machine doing it in the near future.

Are there any jobs that are safe? Sure, those which require critical thinking, creativity or inter-personal skills will still be needed twenty years from now. Anyone who is a performer, works in theater, social work, education or health care will be able to find employment. STEAM type careers may seem safe at the moment, but some could be replaced by future advances in artificial intelligence. Even software development could be outsourced to another computer someday soon.

So what is the solution? Flexibility. Once when chatting with an international businessman friend, I asked what he thought my child should study in college. His reply was a surprise. He said she should major in a foreign language and minor in business. After all, if you cannot communicate with someone, it’s pretty tough to do business with him. Not everyone is interested in business. But the method is sound. All students (in my opinion) should major in a STEAM type subject and minor in a Liberal Art, or visa versa.

Liberal Arts provides the flexibility people need to move between jobs, as doing so seems to be a trend. Even teachers need to be able to adapt. I taught at the secondary level in public schools. When in college, I realized I would be more “employable” if I didn’t just have one subject on my degree and teaching credential (like most teachers). So I graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in German, French and English. This opened many doors.

My simple suggestion is for parents to encourage their children to exercise both sides of their brains. The left is analytical and is most often used in math, science and languages. The right is more creative, and active in the arts. When in high school, urge students to pursue courses which would allow them to pursue a double major in college or CTE (career and technical education), one related to each hemisphere of the brain. This will protect them from radical changes expected in the world of work.



For more information, you'll want my new book, Free College Awareness, coming soon from Griffin Publishing and Watering Seeds. How to avoid needing college loans; available soon to families of Pre-K through High School students.

You are reading from the blog: http://www.roadtofreecollege.com

Photo Credit: Google Images

Fear Identifies Crucial Actions

The Rewards of Hard Work

How to Turn Time into Money for College

Lots of people are busy, yet not everyone reaches his/her goals. If becoming the ideal college scholarship or grant applicant seems like a good idea, then learning how to manage time is important. When teaching students who would soon become the first in their families to go to college, I knew scholarships were vital.

I used a simple illustration to show them how to use their time wisely to help reach this goal. I had them write down their five year goals. One, of course, was to graduate high school, another to be accepted to the college of their choice, a third was to earn lots of scholarship money. The others varied.

Once they did this, I asked them to write down all the activities they were planning to do over the weekend. Then they looked at each one, and asked themselves, “Will doing this help me reach one of my goals?” If the answer was yes, they put an “A” next to it; if not, they labeled it with a “C”; if they weren’t sure, they used the letter “B”.

The next step was to decide if the items were urgent or not urgent. Was there some sort of time constraint on the activity, like studying for a test to be taken on Monday? They ranked each activity in each category in order of urgency, using numbers 1 through whatever.

Over the weekend, they finished all the activities in category “A” in numerical order. Then they completed category “B” and some of category “C”. This not only helped them pinpoint the important items which were urgent, but kept the urgent, but not important items from distracting them.

When students used their goals as a measuring stick for selecting activities to do, they were less confused, stressed or frustrated. They also moved closer to reaching their goals. This is just one of the strategies my students used to earn Full Ride scholarships to college. Others are in my book, Free College Awareness, coming soon from Griffin Publishing and Watering Seeds.

You are reading from the blog: http://www.roadtofreecollege.com

Photo Credit: Google Images

Everyone Begins as a Beginner