Pyramid - I am glad you conquered and got that degree at last. My story lingers longer - I was top honors kid all through school and should have gone straight off to college, but oh the horrors - late 60's - you'd have sex and believe in evolution....so it was out of the question. i always resented it...had to work in retail for minimum wage, tried to pioneer was a major failure at that (hated it too)...eventually took classes at a local college to improve my work prospects and got decent work....eventually faded and now realize that i never really bought into the rhetoric anyway....and six years ago started at long last my pursuit of my degree. will graduate this year and plan to go into a master's program straight away. my job is good - been there over 20 years and while it's okay it doesn't satisfy my need to do something with more depth and interest....so hopefully before i croak i'll have something to do to make good money and use my brain more fully.
i hate and abhor the stigma they put on education. if a kid has the brains, he should be encouraged to go as far as possible. and all kids - every single one of them - should be educated sufficiently so they can support themselves in a comfortable lifestyle. and if in the process of getting that education they develop new ideas and experience different situations and things and even make stupid decisions, that is part of the growth process and is a positive thing.
and (rant) i find it so obnoxious that parents will let their little girls and boys get married as teenagers so they don't have sex without marriage. saddle a kid with an adult responsibility before they grow up. that is just so stupid....and they always end up miserable, have no means of self-support and are stuck on the wheel in the hamster cage.