In the linked article, columnist Ben Stein discusses the cost of raising a child and half-wonders why birth rates amongst the upper middle class has been dropping.
The article is ridiculous to the point of being insulting.
He talks about parents slaving to send children to various prestige schools, starting with private grade school all the way to the $70k / year ivy league colleges. I have to ask a simple question: what parents send their kids to these schools? And I'm left thinking that at least in part, the answer is "those parents unwilling to take a personal hand in raising their kids."
A child's success in school will be directly related to the interest the parent takes in the child's education. This is true regardless of the school chosen.
He also talks about how the kids today all have a huge sense of entitlement, then wonders why his son is an aberration to this observation. Toot your own horn very often? Children learn that sense of entitlement from their parents. If you don't want your child to grow up feeling like the world owes them everything, then you start at home by teaching the value of things. You teach them that if you work hard, you reap the benefits. You work for the things you want.
There are reasons why the birth rate amongst educated women has been declining. It's called "taking responsibility for your decisions." Educated people learn that it's unwise to have children before you can afford them. Educated people also can look at world population figures and understand that 5-child families are a bad idea. Educated people can also do basic math. 5 kids going through college means 0 kids going through even a decent college such as St. Olaf or Carleton.
In all fairness, the Mr. Stein was being tongue-in-cheek, but I felt that his article fell very flat. Maybe he was just trying to get us all to think. Okay, that's fine. Think about what? Is there a problem we should think about? I don't see it. I don't see his point. Maybe he was too subtle for me.
