Thanks Mary Anne. I'm pretty committed right now to getting a degree, if for no other reason that I deserve it after the years of hard work and experience I've put in. There is really a bitter taste in my mouth though from my past experiences with institutes of higher learning. I originally attended the University of Arizona with a major in Music Education right out of high school. My experience there was a nightmare. Compared with the excellent instructors I'd had in high school, my freshmen level courses consisted of the following:

A giant psychology lecture held in an overfilled auditorium with some egotistical professor that you could barely make out from your seats in the back.

A speech course taught by a man that put me to sleep on the first day of class.

A music theory class taught by a senile cello instructor that gave out incorrect information in class daily and would punish students if they corrected him.

A survey of music literature class that required 4 hours of listening to classical music each night in the music library. I lived 15 miles from campus and drove a barely functioning Rambler station wagon.

Private piano lessons from an overtly gay and bitchy instructor that made my skin crawl. I would end up my lesson as far off the piano bench as I could sit without falling off.

An English composition course taught by a student instructor that was the most bizarre woman I've ever seen. Another friend of mine in the class and I had to be physically separated because we'd spend the whole class holding back laughter at the textbook and this very weird woman.

The entire music department was run by antiquated professors that felt that classical music and especially opera were the only forms of music that mattered in spite of the fact that some of the most powerful music of the century was coming out then in the early 70's. The opera students were considered the elite in the college and were the most despicable human beings I think I've encountered.

My college experience was short lived then. I ended up dropping most courses and finished with just a trickle of credits. Since then I've gone back to community colleges as an adult and had more positive experiences but I'll forever have a bad taste in my mouth toward institutes of higher education and the quality of what they produce toward real world skills.

I try very hard not to impart that bad taste to my own children. They will certainly be better equipped for college financially and in backup from my wife and I. I will however, also understand their frustrations in dealing with university idiocy I'm sure they'll experience. People that point to the value of degrees only need to look at George Bush to understand that the piece of paper is only a tiny element to the worth of an individual.