One day, I casually mentioned to a friend that I was still paying off my student loan. "But," I was quick to explain, "It was only for living expenses--Florida has really great scholarships for covering tuition." "That's good," he agreed, "Otherwise going to college would have been a pretty big waste." And something about that offhand remark rubbed me the wrong way. I knew exactly what he meant--paying for a college education would have been a waste because I am a stay-at-home mom not applying my degree to a career. The implication, in fact, was that college degrees are useless to moms in general--a widespread sentiment that I think probably contributes to mothers returning to the workforce after childbirth sooner than they would prefer. I sometimes find myself trying to apologize for or explain away my degree. "I know I'm not using it right now," I say. And that is a lie.
Do you know why a college degree is important? To secure a job, certainly. But many people enter the workforce in areas completely unrelated to their degrees. Some degrees--like English literature--won't help you get a job at all.
For me personally, I suspect that I wouldn't be in Canada at all if I hadn't attended University 2 hours away from my childhood home. Though the distance was relatively small, it was my first experience living on my own--having to scrounge for my own food and get along with roommates (which I wish I'd done a better job of, by the way) and solve some of my own problems. I visited churches, attended counseling with a woman who I still love dearly to this day, navigated my first painful breakup, and just learned how to function as an adult. I don't think these things could have happened in the magnitude that they did if I had stayed in my hometown and gotten a job straight out of high school. And nothing besides school could have convinced me to leave home at that young age.
Cutting the proverbial apron strings aside, though, the knowledge and skills that I obtained in college have been invaluable to my personal growth. I have dissected so many books and articles and written so many papers that require me to organize my thoughts in a rational, coherent manner. I have learned to research whether something or not is true or find out more about a topic that interests me. My curiosity about the world has been aroused. I have learned to pick the important points out of a speech or passage of writing and commit them to memory. I've read great literature--and not-so-great literature. I've studied child psychology and gotten insight into eating disorders. I've learned how language is formed and the different prevailing views upon how it is learned and if there is an age limit to when it can be acquired with fluency. And though I remember very few details across my 4 years of study, the methods and the overarching principles have stayed with me.
But if education only serves one person, it isn't terribly useful. Now I have a daughter (you knew I was going to bring her up, didn't you?), and I am her entire world. For more than a decade, I will be the lens through which she views the world--I will pass on to her my insights, my prejudices, and some of my skill sets. I cannot think of a more compelling reason to have an education.
And truly, if all of my education has taught me anything, it's really that we know very little. Do not make the latest science or psychology or social media or political ideal your god, because they are all continually in flux. I am often amazed by the completely opposite points of view that are presented as "scientifically verified"--and really, unless I am to perform my own, unbiased, longitudinal study on many thousands of people (don't forget the control group!) for every little "fact" I hear, I really can't know anything with certainty. I recall hearing recently that there is new evidence showing that sunscreen can CAUSE cancer. I don't know what is true in that particular case, but it's just another example of the vacillating nature of our knowledge of the universe. Learn to question it.
So to all you moms with your "useless" college degrees, be proud of how your education has shaped you and for the difference it makes in how you raise your little ones. Let your own experiences ignite the spark of curiosity in them and never take for granted how fortunate you were to have studied in one of the most privileged countries in one of the most enlightened ages in the world.
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