I don’t have kids yet but I know that when I have, I want only the best for them. As we all (hopefully =) ). One of the tasks of being a parent is to make sure to equip our kids and prepare them for the future to be independent and successful members of the society. A huge part of that is the educational system. Right now, I am not sure if I were sending my kids to university or not.Why do I hesitate? First and foremost, I draw my insight from my own experiences. So, this is rather very subjective. In the end everyone has to decide for her-/himself. And it is a decision you probably should talk about with your child. This has two reasons. The obvious one is that you shouldn’t just determine what your son or daughter is doing but ask him or her. It is there future and they should have a say in this. The other reason might be to dissolve wrong expectations. Maybe your children think you expect them to go to university and they do this only to satisfy you.During my time as a student, I had a lot of conversations with other students who were just not happy with their studies. This has several reasons. They started to study the wrong thing. Maybe they didn’t know better or maybe they were expected to study certain things. Others are disillusioned by how things are “taught” at university.This is also my biggest criticism and the reason I am doubtful if university is the right thing to send my children to. What I hoped university would be is to be a place where people come together and discuss or have a dialogue about all kind of things. To be critical and open-minded. To learn from the past and to work on a bright future. Unfortunately, this was rarely the case. What I experienced was a set range of topics that had to be “swallowed” and then to “vomit” everything out at the day of the final exam. Critically reflecting what we “learned” or open discussions what is also out there and needs to be kept in mind? Look somewhere else.Moreover, if you ask people who graduated from university how much they need to apply what they learned during university at their jobs, you might get an answer ranging from little to none. Sure, there are highly specialized jobs where you will apply more of what you have learned. I just feel that this is the exception rather than the rule. I am one of those people who do need maybe 5% of what I learned during my time as a student.Yes, there are other things I did learn during this time. Things that are very valuable, such as team work, handling conflicts, stress- and time management. I don’t say that the whole time was a waste. I just think that the reason why I went to university and the expectations I had didn’t match with reality.I think in tomorrow’s entry, I will write about what I would do instead to help my kids prepare for an uncertain future.In the meanwhile, have a look at this video of one of my favorite YouTubers on the topic:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xi9meLsJGOg Stephan