Imagine having an easy-to-digest resource available to you that will guide you in helping your children determine what to do after high school. No more fighting. No more “I don’t know”. No more wasted money and time in an option that doesn’t fit our kids.
Guess what? I’ve written a new book!
College is NOT Mandatory: A parent's guide to navigating the options available to our kids after high school, and it’s almost ready for release!
I knew that when I sat down to write the first draft of an outline for this new book I was taking on a huge project. This book needed to be research and interviews and piecing together experience and information. It needed to paint a picture of what is and what could be in order to create a pathway for parents to understand how to help their children navigate the process of deciding what to do with their life past high school.
This book could potentially change forever how parents help their children navigate the decision of what to do after high school.
Yes. It’s that big.
Why this book is necessary
In our culture today there is a pervasive, paralyzing belief that our children will not be successful in life if they do not earn a college degree. This belief causes parents to tell their children, and teachers to tell their students, that if they don’t get good grades, if they fail, if they don’t “figure it out” so they can get into a good college, they will not be successful.
As a result, we have created a culture of fear for our children who stop dreaming about what could be and instead work to fit a mold so they can conform to what’s expected: get good grades, graduate high school, get into a good college, get a degree and then… live happily ever after.
The reality doesn’t match though. Crippling student loan debt, degrees that rarely lead to meaningful work, and the hamster wheel of continued education to get advanced degrees in pursuit of the elusive “perfect career” abound.
The college degree that was once seen as a “savior” from trial and tribulation in life has now become the source of it.
Worse is how this current trend is impacting our children. They struggle to take risks for fear of failure. They avoid “coloring outside the lines” of the ever demanding college-prep program in high school (AP classes, Dual Enrollment courses, exhaustive clubs and activities) for fear of not getting into college. They want to know exactly what will be on every test so they can have the right regurgitation of answers prepared and rarely seek to learn simply to learn.
As a parent and teacher I have seen this first-hand. Children struggle to look beyond the 4-year college at other viable pathways after high school. And an increasing number of them do not know what they want to do in life because they have been too busy making sure they can get into college to give much serious thought to what they are going to college for.
It doesn’t have to be this way though.
What this book can do
College is Not Mandatory: A parent’s guide to navigating the options available to our kids after high school seeks to change the culture for our children from one of conformity to one of exploration and personal growth, and acceptance of what is best for each individual child. It is a place where parents
can gain a deeper understanding of the struggles our children go through trying to navigate what to do after high school.
can learn about all the major options available to our kids after high school, with relevant research to explain each option in terms we can all digest.
can read interviews with real students and parents who wrestled with the decision of what to do and found a pathway they love.
can participate in customizable conversations with their kids to help them ditch the “one choice for all” mentality and explore what might be best for them without fear of failure.
This book could be just the resource you are looking for to help your child figure out how to ditch conformity, explore who they were really meant to be for themselves, and develop the courage to step into what’s best for them.
That is big, isn’t it?
This book is in its final stages and should, hopefully, be ready for sale in the spring of 2021.
In the meantime, if you have a child who really needs to figure out what to do after high school now, you can do a couple of things:
Check out these seven blog posts on each option available to our kids after high school.
Sign up for a free call with me. As an Education Coach and Consultant I give parents the freedom to let someone else step in and create space for their children to develop a plan for their lives that helps them become who they were meant to be.
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