Yes Kids Should Be Able to Go to College

     I was going through the home page and came upon a poll asking whether you thought President Obama was a 'snob' for saying all American kids should go to college.  I think one of the Republican nominee's said this, I forget which one.  Well, I said no.  I do not think Obama is a snob to say that.  I think what he means is that all American kids should be able to go to college.
     Even with financial aid, college is by no means free, unless you have complete scholarships or something.  I realize too that some kids are not college material in an intellectual sense, but there are trade schools or technological schools and other training.  Even the Commission for the Blind offers some careers for blind people but frankly not enough choices, having graduated from the adjustment to blindness program and knowing the goings on of the campus.
     When Obama says all, I think he means that all kids have a right to a fair education.  I think he is standing up for the poor who have less options and opportunity.  It is about equal opportunity.  I think some of the Republicans really downplay the importance of education.  
     I was infuriated when the former vice-governor of South Carolina under Mark Sandford, before we got Haley who I think I like alright, said that feeding children school lunch was like feeding stray animals.  I, myself and others were completely appalled and I do not think he even gave a real apology.
     Some children literally and only get to eat one meal, the meal they get at school.  Some children are homeless.  Some have parents addicted to drugs and some are in negligent foster care or maybe just have crazy parent(s) or maybe are just extremely poor.  My kids had free lunch, sometimes free breakfast.  I was a poor single mother, doing my best.  None of these are reasons to blame the kids or even the parents in many cases.  
     So, basically no,  I do not think it is 'snobby' of President Obama to say that all kids should be able to go to college.
     Some may not want to go to college, which is alright in my book, although I certainly believe they should be able to go to college if they want to.  I think a lot of kids join the military because of a lack of options and opportunities and get sold on it by recruiters, but someone has to go to war.  Every country needs a strong military to be great.  This is a lot of what my novel American Boys is about.  My sons are both 4F because they are legally blind, but my younger son actually wanted to join the army when he graduated from high school partly because his best friend joined the navy and they had been on the swim team together and were strongly bonded.  Iraq was going on at the time.  I said "go for it if they will take you."  I was not being sarcastic.  I thought maybe he could have some sort of position, like clerical or something, but he changed his mind and did not try.  The thing about going to the army or other services is that they will help you go to school later on I hear.
     The condition that my kids and I have is retinitis pigmentosa and at one time before much was known about it, because in the early stages of youth, there can be fairly clear central vision, sometimes people could pass an eye test because the field of vision was overlooked.  Subsequently, I actually saw a show on 60 minutes, where these two twin brothers with RP who were candidates for the computer chip, which does not really work well at all so far.  Believe it or not, of these two brothers in their sixties I believe, who were totally blind, one had actually been a long distance truck driver in his youth.  Scary I know, because RP causes night blindness and tunnel vision even at a young age.  I have always been blind in one eye and I have always been legally blind in my good eye when not corrected.  However this guy must have had enough central clarity to pass the tests alright.  
      I also would like to mention that I 
taught as a substitute teacher in the Horry County school system for five years and teachers see more than anyone the hardships of children.  A lot of these children had rough lives at home.  School can almost be a refuge for some of whom life is unbearable at home.  I read both the biography of Michelle Obama as well as the biography of Laura Bush, who was a school teacher, was also a Democrat before she converted to being a Republican.  My point is that school teachers are more often Democrats, because they know how poor many kids are and the difficulties of their home lives.  Still I maintain that education is extremely important.  I think the president and the first lady know this very well.  Michelle Obama by no means came from a wealthy family.  Her father died of MS on the way to work.  She grew up on the south side of Chicago, and yet she went to Princeton as well as her brother Craig, and became a lawyer.