= new reply since forum marked as read
Far as I'm concerned, the title of "doctor" should be reserved for a physician in a white lab coat. Not an intellectual blowhard in a tweed jacket with elbow patches. Never mind the Latin roots either. A D.Div (Doctor of Divinity) probably doesn't even believe in modern science, let alone know anything about medicine. Unless one counts exorcisms and round-the-clock novenas to be legitimate medical practice. 
Cardiologists, oncologists, pediatricians, gynecologists... REAL doctors. Not Dr. Oz or Dr. Phil. Heck, I have more respect for Dr. Kevorkian than even those two.
I still have no respect for the Piled High & Deep crowd, though. Bill Cosby may be a "doctor" of education but as far as I'm concerned, he's an even more fictional doctor now than when he was an actual fictional doctor playing Cliff Huxtable.
A PhD in "important"-sounding shit like Medieval Weaponry or Freudian Gender Studies is just a made-up phony sheepskin.
By the way, a Doctor of Education is an Ed.D. AKA a doctor of ED. 
I guess we can file Cosby under men's health specialist?
"I know, Doc. That's what she said." 
There are lots of people who can become plumbers and other skilled tradespeople and enjoy the work, but you still have to go to school and do an apprenticeship. Have a couple of friends' kids who went to trade schools. It was more expensive per year than my kids' college expenses.
Besides that, how many jobs are really out there for skilled tradespeople? Sure there is a demand for skilled trades, but those jobs cannot be enough for every working class kid. This is such a condescending attitude from another obscenely rich guy who is surrounded with people dedicated to telling him what a mental giant he is. He has no idea what he is talking about. Secondly, it is clear by his statement that he feels certain that all that money sending most of us to college is a big waste of money. If we were so smart, we would already be billionaires like him. In his tiny weird world, the only children worth educating are only the ones born into money, of course.
If your kids are in junior high or high school, there are ways to get scholarships at a lot of state and even private schools. Have they taken the ACT or SAT yet? At Ohio University, if they score a 32 ACT(do not remember the SAT score, it is on their website) they can get a Gateway scholarship that covers 100% of tuition. That is a tough score to reach, but most kids have a shot at getting a score close enough to get a partial Gateway. I am certain many other universities have similar programs. Living expenses are still expensive, but there are additional aid packages and scholarships. Of course, loans are available, but the goal is to minimize that option as much as possible. You should check with all your state schools on the financial aid available for your kids. Another thing to check out are branch campuses. Here in Ohio the state schools have branch campuses which are much less expensive than the main campuses and are within commuting distances, so kids can save money on living expenses, while they get their first or second year courses out of the way. Not as much fun as living on campus, but still a good way to get an education. The classes are usually taught by faculty who are really interested in teaching, too, another bonus for branch campuses. The OU branch near us gives kids full tuition scholarships if they score a 25 on the ACT.
One other thing is if you can swing it have the kids take both the ACT and SAT to see which they score better on. They are not limited to taking it just once, so they can work to better their scores, without stressing out so much. The best thing to do is have them take it early in high school or late middle school, so you know where they are. Both ACT and SAT have practice questions on their websites, so kids can review on their own. A lot of rich people send their kids to test prep classes, but we could not have afforded it even if it was available here(very rural area).
I hate it when people denigrate getting an education. A college education is about so much more than a job training program. Young people can gain so many skills other than just getting a job. Meeting people from myriad backgrounds, learning how to study and reason are all very important reasons to further an education. The costs have become horrible thanks to the GOP slashing state support for public universities. I wish people would wake up and stop drinking the Koolaid about an education being of no use for us working class folks.
Good luck to you and your kids.
Sorry for the long post. Hope it gives you some ideas for your kids. Congratulations on getting through school during the Reagan years. That was not a fun time to scramble through school.
Lots of people like to learn how to think about things in new ways. That is the most important lesson from an education. Being totally inflexible in how one thinks does not allow a person to grow personally or professionally. Rigidity of the mind is not a good quality in any profession.
There are a couple of artists in this area that make a pretty decent income weaving baskets, by the way. One basket weaver I know, makes more than my plumber. 
I can see many reasons to study a created language like Klingon. You should try something different sometime, you might enjoy thinking along new lines.
No Child Left Behind and RttP have done a lot of damage to young peoples' brains. The massive amount of testing has stymied the brain development in many. You should do try to combat that by taking some challenging classes. You do not want to become that "Get of my Lawn" guy at such a young age.
Good Luck!
494 here.
unions
--imm
I know tradespeople in my area who live in houses that would make Bloombooger salivate. Many of them ended up going to college and getting engineering degrees, for which they now make even more BANK doing municipal contract work.
I've also seen plenty of PhD candidates getting $7/hour to wipe geriatric asses at convalescent homes. Before they make your sandwich at Subway. 
Moral of the story: Life of the mind = job of the bowels.
Right on the head. 
...working at the CVS photo counter?
Anyone can work at the CVS photo counter. Point is, we don't need a bunch of Renaissance Art "experts" to explain this or that about Michelangelo, Donatello, Leonardo and Raphael.
We've got plenty of 5-year-olds who've already seen their "self portraits."
