Advising My Children Regarding College

As my oldest sons begin high school this coming fall, I need to begin talking with them about their plans for after high school. What do they want to do with their lives? Depending on the possible answers to that question, a college degree may be necessary. But it also may not be. Is college worth it anymore, if you don't already have a set direction you know will require a post-secondary diploma? Ask the colleges and universities, and they can be relied on to answer in the affirmative. And perhaps in decades past, they were mostly correct. Now, however? The cost-benefit needs to change when free speech, freedom of inquiry, and critical thinking are under such relentless and persistent attack on campuses from coast to coast. And when even many historically Christian universities become indoctrination centers for Leftist, liberal, Progressive, and Woke propaganda, we have to re-evaluate and double-check our math. If college were free, that would be one thing. It most certainly is not, however. If college were necessary to success, then the answer would be obvious. And where the path is certain and certainly requires college, then our minds are made up for us. Otherwise, perhaps the most enlightened thing is to encourage our children to think and study deeply and independently on their own, and pursue the trades instead of diplomas which with each passing year seem less and less valuable adjusted for inflation and the laws of supply and demand.