Post High School Education

It's 2021 and the realization that it's been almost one year since I graduated my youngest! What has happened in that year! A lot, it was 2020 - Do I really need to say more.

My daughter has decided to take a gap year, get a job and figure out exactly what she wants to do before pursuing any post-high school education. A move I fully support! I rather her spend time figuring out what she may want vs just taking classes to be taking classes because that's what you are supposed to do.

My son is finishing up his culinary degree at a local technical college and just this week landed a full-time job at a local restaurant whose focus is on offering seasonally driven dishes from locally sourced ingredients. The type of restaurant that grinds its own meat for burgers! -- I'm super excited for him and what this job opportunity will mean.

Then just today the technical college announced on their Facebook page that they just received the highest accreditation possible for their culinary program from American Culinary Federation Education Foundation Accrediting Commission (ACFEFAC). There are 13 schools within WI-IL that have accreditation and only 4 of them, one being the school my son attends, have this exemplary status.  4 of the 13 schools.

All of this started to make me think of the choices people make, especially when it comes to post-high school education. Will my kids even go to school? I don't want them to pursue a career in this, because it's perceived they will not make money. In addition, I often see the push for 4-year schools and technical colleges and community colleges get poo-poo on as if they are not superior or can not hold up. As if 4 years are the only good options.

My son's technical school earning the highest accreditation possible for culinary made me realize how wrong people can be. Seeing it's a 3rd party accreditation board that is doing the accrediting we can look to them as a means to measure without bias. All ACFEFAC cares about is that the program meets its standards -- so two schools that meet the same standards can be seen as equal with the quality of education they produce. 

One of those 4 other schools that received the same accreditation happens to also be a larger school more widely known for its culinary program. Both schools are 2-year culinary programs. Both schools offer an AAS in Culinary Arts. It's just one is a small technical college that is not widely known and the other is a much larger school that is widely known.

Technical College Cost: $12,000
Well Known College Cost: $72,000 plus housing

WOW! look at that price difference for what is basically the same program according to ACFEFAC! Sure there are drawbacks to being at the technical college, such as potential employers outside of the area may have no clue or knowledge about the technical college and may have questions about the school. However, my son can overcome those challenges at job interviews when he can say the program is accredited by ACFEFAC and actually has the highest accreditation status: exemplary.

All of this to say: do not dismiss a local technical school or community college just because it's a community, technical college. Do research on the school, programs they offer, etc.

Yes, schooling has been expensive and we have had to do some loans to pay for it, but we saved ourselves $60,000 by going to the technical school. And what loans we have needed at the end of the day is equivalent to a car loan; so it will be easily paid back vs a loan that is equivalent to a house!

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Separation of Church and State

Illinois like other states had swiping abortion law changes. The changes in the new laws in Illinois will make it easier for abortions and will allow for later term abortions as well.

With these changes in the law, there is an actually a Catholic Bishop standing up! He announced that lawmakers that voted the recent bill will not be allowed to receive communion.

Of course, my local news outlet posted about what the Catholic Bishop did on their Facebook page and many commented with "separation of Church and State".

My first thoughts after seeing all these comments about "separation of Church and State":

The Next Chapter

My son, Scout or Superstar as my older readers may remember me calling him, graduated from high school! He for the second summer in a row will be gone all summer - leaves little over a week from now and will not be back until the Sunday before school starts. He for the second summer in a row will be working at a BSA camp. Last year he worked as a merit badge counselor, this summer he will be a line cook. He's super excited about being a line cook because in the fall he will be going to a local technical college to study culinary.

This means my daughter Cadet or Web-Princess as my older readers may remember me calling her, will be starting her senior year of high school. She wants to homeschool all year this last year -- right now we are on a little break; she is just chilling and doing her thing. I'm focusing on my son and helping him finish up his BSA Eagle project before he leaves for camp and ages out.

With the kids getting older and approaching college I have decided it's time for me to think about what I'm going to be doing for my next chapter. That next chapter for me is doing virtual assistant work. I have a Facebook page started https://www.facebook.com/assistancebynichole and been reading up everything I can on being a virtual assistant, running your own business, and everything else related.

I'm looking forward to this next chapter! 

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Thankful; Not to be

Unless you live under a rock I'm sure you know who the Duggars are!  Society or at least social media can be so cruel. To the Duggar women -- those born into the family and those married into the family.

Scrolling through the Google news app on my phone and I stumbled upon an article about a wife of one of the Duggar men.  This article pointed out how the wife was 19 when she got married, has only been married for the last 20 months and are already expecting baby number 2. -- an issue she's too young.  Likewise, the eldest Duggar daughter is just under 30 and is often criticized for being single still, no husband, no children. Seriously, you can't have it both ways, people!

Playboy and Homeschooling?

In my nearly 12 years of homeschooling I never in a million years would think I would be talking about or sharing my thoughts about a homeschooling article that showed up in Playboy of all places.

Sure, I thought I would be sharing things like how to filter the internet, how to protect kids eyes from porn, but never thought I would actually be talking about an article in Playboy.

Yes, Playboy actually has articles and sometimes it can be even informative or misinformative, but the articles do at times bleed through and matter to people and you may be surprised what kinds of articles have been published in the magazine over the years. For example,  Playboy did an interview with Martin Luther King Jr.

Leftist Feminism: Scouting

I know not everyone agrees with Boy Scouts of America (BSA) and their current stands on many issues including the most recent change that started earlier this calendar year: Allowing girls into its flagship program commonly known as "boy scouting".

This post isn't so much about if BSA should have allowed that or not. At my core, I'm of the mindset that a private organization, such as BSA, has the right to decide who can be apart of their group and who is not eligible. I'm of the mindset that if a group of people does not like a particular group's rules instead of bullying them and pressuring them to change they should start a group that meets their needs and values. Example: That's how Trail Life USA, Heritage Girls, and other scouting groups came to be.