If things were different

If my brother had lived, today would have been his 45th birthday - happy birrfday bruv.

Unfortunately on the 10th September 1985 when he was just 19 years old, he decided enough was enough and killed himself.

Why?

My brother left school when he was 16, gotten a job, found a girlfriend, found a house, got a mortgage and then got married - all by the time he was 19. Then things started to go "wrong". His job looked like it was going to come to an end and from what I can understand (given that he didn't leave a note) couldn't stand the prospect of being unemployed or having a wife who constantly berated him for not doing enough and so on.

19

Losing my brother in that way is one of the reasons why I am so driven to help other people, especially the the younger readers of the daily dose who sign up because they are struggling especially with things like image, peer pressure and finding the motivation to study.

My daughter will be 19 in 5 weeks, she is in the last couple of weeks of her first year of college and will end the year having gained both a certificate III and certificate IV in hospitality. She has enrolled next year to do a diploma in event management with second and third choices of business and advertising. My daughter is only one of a handful of "kids" from her wide range of friends and acquaintances who have gone on to college and / or uni. A few have gained apprenticeships and are well on their way to getting a trade qualification, others however decided to find jobs, while others "had" to find work. The reasoning behind it seems to have been - well I've paid for your education for 12 years, now you need to repay that by finding a job and contributing to the household expenses.

Believe me when I say I do understand household expenses, but forcing my kids out of education to get work of any kind - I don't think so.

We are coming up as you know to end of another school year in Australia and the kids are slowly breaking for the long school holidays. My son will be moving into his last year of high school next year where he will major in graphic design - not all of his friends however are going back.  When I picked my son up from work at 10pm last night, he told me that one of his mates had got a job and was earning $800 a week. Wow - that's not bad for a summer job. Oh no, he said, he's left school and works full time to support the family. He is 16 years old. A highly talented boy who won the 2010 West Australian Under 16 rugby player of the year. He has a large family with 6 or 7 siblings, mum can't work because the youngest is less than a year old and dad was injured in a workplace accident. Would he have been forced to give up school had his dad not been injured - according to my son - yes, but that seems to be part of his family's culture. BTW - The education system in Western Australia allows kids as young as 16 to leave school if they have either a full time job or an apprenticeship.

It bothers me, OK it upsets me - a lot. Here are kids being expected to go to work and earn a living and pay their way - because their parents have decided not to expend any more time or money on their education. Now I understand we live quite a privileged lifestyle in Australia, we don't have the grinding poverty of some of the third world countries where education is a luxury and only those who can afford to go, do so. I'm not rich by any means, but I don't care what it costs me I am going to give my kids the best education that I can - yes they work, but it's to give them pocket and bus fare money so if they do want to buy the latest designer what nots and gadgets, they can. I don't consider my kids to have a debt that needs to be repaid - I want them to grow, to be the best they can be.

And that's what I would like for each and every one of you. Never take your study or your education time for granted. Take the opportunity to learn as much as you can from as many people as you can. There are so many opportunities today - don't waste those given to you.