Page 72 - SpringBoard_Writing_Workshop_Grade7_Flipbook

Statistics from the Department of Education do indicate that those who delay starting college are less likely to finish than those who go straight from high school. But that is no consolation to a mother who sent a child to college only to see him drop out.
The time Evan spent at R.I.T. was not wasted. He learned that he will never be a mechanical engineer. He made friends, tried his sea legs as a (somewhat) independent person, sampled psychology. He became an authority on beers of the world. He got two years older. He himself believes the time was not wasted. “I met Gretchen,’’ he said. Gretchen is his girlfriend.
These days he is digging fencepost holes and doing roofing for $8 an hour for a contractor in Rochester. He is supporting himself, paying off credit card debts and already sounding wistful about college.
“Without a college degree,’’ he told me recently, “I feel like I’m out there all by myself, like I have nothing to fall back on.’’
Mr. Gilpin has a favorite saying: “College is the most expensive buffet in the world—$30,000 a year—and you’d better be sure you’re hungry.’’
Perhaps it is only by being away from school—by being out of the academic loop—that my son will, at long last, find that hunger.
My Notes
Writing Workshop 5 • Response to Expository Text 17
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