And when was the last time you talked, really talked to a teenage boy?

Because the ones in Urchling's life are saying they're not enrolling because of ROI. They worry they'll have to retrain for another career before they get any investment retuen on that first tuition.

Urchling herself is not going to college yet for that very reason. She's going to learn a trade instead and try to make a living off her art.

These kids are the children of older Millennials and GenX. They don't want to be their parents' age and still paying off student loans.

Sadly, that's the only way most of them are going to get to go. They're also painfully ignorant of how to navigate college bureaucracy or alternate paths toward college. Like, that you don't actually have to go all at once. You can take the 'scenic' route.

I remember being a teenager and all the elders constantly yammering about "what's wrong with kids today." Nobody ever actually asked us. Everybody had an opinion though and generally browbeat us to death with it to make themselves feel better about their own regretful life choices, I reckon. Nothing new there but I swore I wouldn't do that to my kids. And I haven't. I am bound by parley rule #2. That naturally got extended to Urchling's friends and classmates.

Very nice diatribe though.