Preparing Single Income Sons: Chapter Two

Chapter Two - "What is his earning potential?" - is where Steve walk adults who are home schooling children through the three characteristics that determine how much income a person will generate as an adult: vocation, education and skill level.

Frankly, I needed to pause and suspend my disbelief to finish the chapter.  This is not a book marketed for children or pre-teens.  This isn't a book for teenagers or even young adults.  This book is marketed for adults who are actively home schooling one or more child.  These people KNOW what leads to a well-paying job and what does not already.

The first characteristic that Steve leads off with is "vocation" - and his anecdotes give more insight into his mind than anything else.

A man's vocation is generally what we think determines how much money he makes. If you meet a visitor at church and find out he is a doctor or a lawyer, you will likely think, "Here is someone with few financial difficulties." On the other hand, when we think of firemen, pastors, policemen, and school teachers, we don't picture them making huge salaries. (pg. 21)

When someone tells me their job, I don't immediately think about the person's financial status - but Steven Maxwell does.   Truthfully, it's none of my damn business.   Plus, there's such a huge range in amount of educational debt, personal debt, personal financial obligations and amount of salary that a lawyer might be struggling financially while a pastor is doing fine.  My extended family has raised families of between 3-9 children on careers like nursing, fire fighting, teaching, social work, and engineering; it's more about planning and budgeting to use the money a household has.

Every family has that person who makes statements that sound deep - but the ideas are patently obvious to adults who can think for more than 10 seconds.  Steve Maxwell is in that class:

It seems like every son wants to be a fireman, policeman, or bulldozer operator at some point in his young life. Then as he matures, other jobs catch his interest. Just because a person is interested in a profession doesn't mean it is right for him. (pg. 21)

So deep! 

I planned to be a ballerina when I was in kindergarten. The fact that I couldn't put my heels down to the grounds due to severely tight calf muscles from cerebral palsy was (in my assessment) a benefit; I was already on my toes all the time.

What did I want to be next?  I wanted to be a stay-at-home mom, a teacher, a naturalist, and a microbiologist.  Oddly enough, I've worked as three out of the four of those (if I can count work in cellular biology as microbiology) and all four if I can count the hundreds of nature walks I took campers on as a "naturalist". 

Yeah, we all have crazy career ideas - but listening to the career interests of kids can help parents and teachers figure out what a kid wants in a career. Key points for me turned out to be "likes providing education", "deals with science", and "has relatively high daily autonomy within a structured organization".

Let's take a look at how Steve handles a vocational interest of one of his sons:

Christopher, my second oldest son, was near the point of making a commitment to a vocation. He was very interested in pursuing EMT credentials to become an emergency medical technician. I wondered if his engrossment was mostly do to an excitement factor connected with EMT work. In addition, Christopher has a very strong leading toward raising a family someday. Christopher and I discussed and prayed about his vocation decision. We also discussed the fact that EMTs have to work odd shifts, and it is very common for a man and woman to be paired up. Having to work alone with a woman all day or night can lead to unhealthy temptation. The odd shifts also bring added difficulty to a family and would disrupt a daily schedule. Over time, Christopher could see the raising a family and being an EMT might bring problems to his marriage and family that would be prudent to avoid. ... I was pleased the Christopher saw the wisdom of pursuing a different career, even though it might be less exciting.

Please don't misunderstand me. Through my illustration, I am not saying a Christian can't have an EMT type job. I am saying that it is wise to count cost beforehand. (pg.22)

An overarching theme in the Maxwell publications is that Steven Maxwell hates the idea of paying anyone else to educate his children - regardless of the outcome for the kids.   Although he doesn't state this theme here, I doubt he was excited about the idea of Christopher paying around $2,500 for classes, textbooks and exams to become an EMT.

Maxwell does make important points about the drawbacks of working as an EMT.  The shifts that a EMT works change drastically from week to week.   Christopher would be exposed to a working partner who was not a member of the Maxwell Family; I know Steve dresses the situation up as a potential source of "temptation" - but Christopher's world might be more upended by a Christian male colleague who just talks with him on a regular basis about life.

The "temptation" factor hides another tricky point: I'm not certain that Christopher Maxwell could keep up in an EMS class.    These classes are heavy on medical terminology and the Maxwell home school structure lacks advanced sciences like chemistry or human anatomy physiology.    He'd be under a much heavier academic load than he'd ever been before - and some people can't do it.

My last concern - and it's the least important one - is that EMTs do not make much money.  This isn't the end of the world; some take second jobs while others get advanced training to facilitate career moves from low-paying entry level jobs with private ambulance services to being employed by government entities or through hospital systems.   For the Maxwell Family, all of these options would be considered second-rate and a rejection of the ideal of owning a home-based business.

I included this last quote from the "vocation" section because I find the thesis hilarious
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A child may also express interest in a career that Christians should not even consider such as owning a nightclub, movie rental store, abortion facility, or liquor store. It is possible his spiritual maturity is insufficient to realize something is wrong. That is where a parent can help him see God's will more clearly. Take him directly to Scripture to support your claims. The versus you use would make excellent Bible study topics for you and your son. (pg. 23)

If a family has strong feelings against alcohol, x-rated movies, or abortion and lives their lives to make those beliefs clear, why would one of their kids all of a sudden declare that they want to be a strip-club owner?  Steven Maxwell is categorically against movies, television, the vast majority of books, professional sports, participating in team sports, most precious jewelry and recreational vehicles.  How likely is it that one of his kids would seriously declare that they wanted to be an actor, a bookstore owner, or a scheduling manager for a local stadium?  I grew up in a family that was highly involved in the pro-life movement; none of my siblings or cousins ever spontaneously opined that they really, really wanted to do abortions when they grew up. 

The Bible isn't a great career study book.  It's solid enough for things like moral precepts - but your kid should be pretty clear on moral job choices LONG before their teenage years.

Steven's second characteristic for income is education.  The gist of the section is that only parents or students can be trusted to educate themselves.  Outside educational programs will lead students astray.  It's not a new idea and it's not terribly interesting so I'm going to skip the main section and move into the bits where he jumps completely off the rails:

Remember Steve, mentioned in Chapter One? That is me. If I had wanted a larger income, should I have pursued a master's degree? Yes, if I was to believe the commercials on the radio. However, that was not God's leading and not consistent with my abilities. Would I have made more money had I earned a master's? Only the Lord knows for sure, but with my limited math and science abilities, I doubt I would have justified the higher wages that a master's degree would have brought. As a result, I might have been discouraged, and the company employing me would not have felt they were getting their money's worth. (pg.24)

Oh, my goodness!  The Steve in the first chapter who is an electrical engineer whose eldest son out earned him is the author?  Who have thought it?  There are SO many electrical engineers who home school their kids then write a book about it.

Whether an advanced degree is useful depends on the discipline that the person works in,  the career path that are interested in, and the amount of experience the person has.  Right now, the average income for an electrical engineer in Michigan with a bachelor's degree is around $55,000 while a master's degree job averages $79,000 a year.  Generally, bachelor's degree science jobs have relatively little autonomy while master's degree jobs tend to expect more independent work.  Master's degrees are also the lowest expected degree for people who want to do managerial level work. 

I think Steve is trying to appeal to the anti-intellectual element of CP/QF life - but declaring that he's bad at math and science beggars belief.   The starting mathematics course for a bachelor's degree in engineering is calculus 1 - and progresses through calculus 2, calculus 3 and  differential equations.  Steve may not be the best math guy of the engineers he graduated with - but he's easily in the top 2-3% of all Americans.   

On a purely picky note - I've never heard a radio ad that promotes a Master's degree program in engineering.  That's a horrible way to attract potential candidates. 

Something else to consider is that those with higher degrees may experience difficulty in finding jobs. The workforce is like a pyramid and that the higher you climb the education ladder, the fewer jobs you'll find requiring those skills. That is why it is imperative that parents know God's direction for their child. Overconfidence may lead to disappointment when a degree does not bring the anticipated salary. In fact, I have heard people calling Christian radio talk shows complaining about how difficult it is to repay their student loan based on the amount of money they are currently making. They had expected a higher salary upon graduating with a degree. (pg. 24)

Steven is completely and totally backwards on how education affects the availability of jobs. 

My first job was as a utility worker at a grocery store.  This job was open to any person who was at least 16 years old and could legally work in the United States which means that about 73% of the US population could apply for that job.    Locally, it was in an area where many people didn't go to college so roughly 80% of locals could apply for that job.

When I graduated from college with a bachelor's degree, I could still apply and get the utility worker job - and I could also apply for jobs that require bachelor's degrees like a laboratory technician and a variety of teaching jobs.  Additional education credentials adds more jobs to a person's options.    The specific job of "high school teacher with a BA or BC certification" was much less frequent - but there were very few people who could apply for the job and even fewer who actually applied.  At the school I taught at, we were lucky to attract 20 applicants of which roughly 3-6 were interviewed.

Even his argument that the number of jobs that require a college degree are fewer is specious in certain locations.   In the county I grew up in, there are many, many more teaching jobs than there were utility worker jobs; school systems were the largest employer and "teacher" is the most common job within a school system while the number of jobs that are available to people with a high school diploma as their highest completed schooling is tiny.

People do need to be careful about how much money they take out in loans while attending college.  A good rule of thumb is that college students shouldn't take out more than they expect to earn during their first year out of college.  On the flip side, college graduates on average out-earn people without college degrees throughout their career - a basic fact that Steve ignores.

The last category is personal skill level.  That's a no-brainer - and thankfully, Steve restricts himself to a quick attack on a doctor he didn't like two decades ago:

When Joseph was a toddler, he developed a cough that wouldn't go away. We had just moved to Kansas, so we took him to a doctor we picked out of the telephone book. The physician was in his sixties and very personable. However, he had great difficulty looking in Joseph's throat as Joseph was not being very cooperative. After several attempts, he appeared to give up but said he'd seen enough to give us a prescription. Teri and I were confident he had not been successful in seeing Joseph's throat, and we felt he was guessing at a diagnosis. After a couple weeks with no improvement, we took Joseph to another doctor who promptly diagnosed and successfully treated him. Later we spoke with others who had tried the first doctor, and they too had opted for someone else.

Here was a doctor, with plenty of credentials and schooling, who should have been making a good salary. However, his skill level was poor. I don't know what his actual income might have been, but if the condition of his office and the lack of patients was any indication, the man was not making much money at all. (pg. 25)

Psst!  Let me give you a hint: the doctor had been practicing successfully for 25-30 years!  Let's assume that he was making enough money to get by. 

Honestly, I have far more questions about the Maxwell parents' choices at this point. 

• Steve had a job that presumably had coworkers.  Joseph's cough had reached a chronic point so surely making the appointment could wait 24 hours for Steve to ask someone who lived in the area for a recommendation for a pediatrician or family practitioner.
• It's not like the doctor needed to do a detailed throat inspection;  he was looking to see if the kid had post-nasal drip.  All he needed was to see the throat for just long enough to see if it was reddened.  
• Did the Maxwell parents fill the prescription?  The story is not clear about that point.....
• Every drug I've ever taken for a cough says that if the cough doesn't improve in between 3-7 days to call the doctor for a follow-up.  I feel terrible for poor toddler Joseph who has been hacking for around a month by the time his parents decided to find another doctor.

The next chapter is about a person's "real" earning potential.  I can't wait!