Joyfully At Home: Chapter Fourteen - Part One

 

I swear this started as a good day.

I dropped Spawn off at school and started driving to a grocery store when the alternator on my car died.  I got the car off the road safely and called for a tow truck.    Years ago, one of my aunts was critically injured when her disabled car was hit by another car - so I got out of the van and paced up and down the side of the road while waiting for the tow truck.

I lost track of the number of people who stopped to see if I needed anything.  One person apologized for not stopping on their way to dropping their kid off at school - and I told them I was fine.  

The tow driver took me to my aunt-in-law's house where I got my mother-in-law to drive me to pick up my son at school.  We all enjoyed a walk from school to a local restaurant.  It's about 4/10ths of a mile and Spawn rocked it in his walker.  

I was pretty wiped by the time we brought our food home - so Spawn and I had a good nap.

Then I opened the interwebs to see if the Georgia Special Senate Election had been called.   

I found that pro-Trump rioters had invaded the Capitol - and the President is wishy-washy about denouncing them.   

Honestly, I feel sick.   

I kind of thought Trump was going to go out in a ball of flames - but more like a crazy-uncle type of flames than inciting riots.    

My mistake.

I need to distract myself so I'm going to post out-of-order another section from "Joyfully At Home" by Jasmine Baucham.  In true form, my copy of "The Battle For Peer Dependence" is missing in action - but my copy of "Joyfully At Home" surfaced.  

We are starting Chapter 14.  Chapter 13 was an impassioned defense of stay-at-home daughterhood that failed to answer the main objection to stay-at-home daughterhood "How will you support yourself financially if you never marry, get divorced or are widowed early?"   Chapter 14, then, attempts to weave some defenses for other oddities of stay-at-home daughterhood.  

Here's the first question:

Question 1: What is your belief on college? Do you think that women should go to college? (pg. 163) 

After the question, Jasmine brings up the importance of grounding any answer in the Bible - but somehow manages to miss that no one went to college in the Bible....and that we segregated people with presently treatable skin conditions to a leper colony.   

IOW, sometimes the Bible doesn't have particularly pertinent answers to modern questions besides the standard ones about how to treat other people and how to worship God.

Next, Jasmine discusses how she wanted to go to an Ivy League school during most of her childhood, but her aspirations for college shrunk every year during high school.    That's a really unusual situation for someone as skilled as Jasmine - until you realize the source:

There were several things that made me shy away from my UCLA and and NYU ideals.  One was a five point sermon my dad's been preaching to Trey and me since we entered high school :

• Most BA degrees are not worth the paper they're written on.
• Four years is too much time to waste.
• $80,000 ( Room & Board/ State School) to $250,000( Room & Board/Ivy League) is too much money to spend.
• College is not for everyone.
• Most universities are philosophically antagonistic to Christianity.

(pgs. 163-164)

Voddie Baucham's five point sermon is extremely weird considering the fact that he has three post-secondary degrees!   The fact that Rev. Baucham earned multiple degrees from accredited institutions gave him access to jobs that people who followed his advice would be unable to access.

Allow to me rebut his arguments.

1) "Most BA degrees are not worth the paper they are written on". 

 This is simply wrong.   Completing a four year degree has consistently been the most effective way for people to increase their lifetime earnings and compete for the widest pool of jobs available.  People with a bachelor's degree have shorter spells of unemployment and are eligible for higher wages than people without.

2) "Four years is too much time to waste."

This might be a valid point for a CP/QF son who could start earning good wages faster through technical or trades training - maybe.   The point is moot for a stay-at-home daughter who will be working as an unpaid kitchen/nursery assistant for the same period of time because she's wasting a few years anyways.   Looking at a longer time frame, a stay-at-home daughter is ideally supposed to become a homeschooling mother in the fullness of time.   Going to college to solidify a young woman's reading, writing, math, science and social studies skills is an investment in her children's high school education - hardly a waste of time.

3)"$80,000 ( Room & Board/ State School) to $250,000( Room & Board/Ivy League) is too much money to spend." 
I agree with Rev. Baucham on this one - don't pay full price for your college education. 

On the other hand, Rev. Baucham isn't telling his children the entire truth about college prices. 

 Shopping for colleges is a lot like purchasing a used car.   There is always a sticker price for tuition, room and board for each college - but savvy buyers never pay that price.   Jasmine - like most high school students- believes the main effort is getting into a college.   Her father - like most college graduates - knows that the real competition is finding a college that wants YOU as a student strongly enough that they will give you a discounted rate through scholarships, grants etc., so your degree will cost a fraction of the sticker price.   

The college I graduated from had a sticker price of $22,000 per year.  I paid $7,500 per year.  

Jasmine seems bright and articulate.  I'm sure she could have gotten some decent scholarships at a variety of colleges - and possibly full-ride ones.

4) "College is not for everyone."   

I agree in generality with Rev. Baucham - not everyone is a good fit for college.

But Rev. Baucham isn't speaking to a crowd of high school students - he's speaking to his two high school aged children.  

I have no idea of Trey Baucham's personality or academic skills - but Jasmine seems to be a natural fit for college - and we know she is because she did eventually earn a 4-year degree.  

Homeschooling parents are supposed to know more about their children's academic needs and strengths than a teacher - so why is Jasmine's father giving her crap-tastic advice?  Because she's a girl?  To keep his followers happy? 

5) "Most universities are philosophically antagonistic to Christianity."   

First, Jasmine and Trey wouldn't be going to "most" universities; they would be going to a university. I'm certain they could find quite a few Christian universities - and maybe even a Christian university that supported their worldview if that's a major concern.

Second, most universities are also philosophically antagonistic to smoking pot, having Quidditch tournaments, and having adult students treat professors as equals rather than respected elders - but each of those things happen everyday at universities all over the US.   If you need to avoid the philosophical antagonism of universities to Christianity, avoid the area where philosophically inclined professors hang out to argue rhetoric and join the local "Students for Christ" club in whatever form it takes.  

Personally, I avoided both groups like the plague - but you do you.

Well, things have settled down in DC so far.   Have a good night.