BUILDING THE FOUNDATION OF LIFE FOR OUR CHILDREN

Dr. Tesfa G. Gebremedhin

West Virginia University

Obviously, education is the foundation of life. Planning ahead for our children’s college education is one of the most important things we need to prepare ourselves ahead of time. A child’s education is one of the largest expenses many families face today. College tuition and fees are continuously increasing at a faster rate than the general rate of inflation or cost of living. It has been estimated that students who entered college in 2002 and lived on campus is expected to spend an average of $70,940 on tuition, fees, housing, and meals by graduation in 2006 at a four-year public institution. At a private institution, the college costs have the potential to be significantly higher than the costs in public institution. According to the College Board (2003), that cost can easily exceed $107,000 at an average-priced private school. This fact alone makes it imperative to make a serious adjustment in our life and develop a plan to meet these and other costs. Whether our children are still in diapers or already in high school, we need to save money for college education expenses. At a later time, trying to save both for our children's college education and our own retirement, at the same time, will be very difficult. The sooner we start the less money we will have to save per year. Ideally, college savings should begin as soon as a child is born, but, in the real world, many of us just never get started and prepare ourselves for the college costs. Suddenly, our child is a teenager and college tuition is staring us in the face. By the later time, the required monthly savings amount is often more than what we can earn. A little money saved early actually exceeds a lot of money saved later on. To illustrate this point, let us compare two sets of parents of college freshmen. Zahra’s parents started saving $100 a month for her education as soon as she was born, while Solomon’s parents waited until he was 10 and then started saving $250 a month for eight years. When Zahra and Solomon turned 18 years of age, their college funds – assuming an average annual return of 8 percent – were worth $48,300 for Zahra and $33,700 for Solomon, even though Solomon’s parents actually tried to save more money per month than Zahra’s parents. We need to understand that starting early is an important step we can take to ease the burden of meeting the financial responsibility for our children’s college education and other obligations.

Personal growth and expanded horizons for the welfare of our children are enough reasons to send our children to college. Few people doubt the value of a college education in helping individuals achieve success in life. After all, college education is one of the major responsibilities we face as parents. Clearly, we have two choices if we want to send our children to college: we start an investment plan and save for our children’s education the day they are born, or saddle ourselves or our children with debt the day they start college. Obviously, many parents are wondering if they can adequately save for this important investment goal. Saving for a child's higher education is one of the first financial priorities for many parents. It can be a monumental challenge, but fortunately, there are many methods that can be used to maximize a college savings program. Parents need to save and prepare for college education expenses through a combination of many modern ways of saving money on a tax-advantaged basis, like education saving bonds, education saving accounts, prepaid tuition plans, growth mutual funds, growth stocks and CDs, life insurance, other different investment strategies, or the most traditional way of collecting coins in a piggy or pickle jar, or seeking direct financial aid from government, scholarships and loans. We can save a lot of money for college education for our children by liberating ourselves from gambling, playing cards, bingo, billiard, drinking alcohol, buying unnecessary gold ornaments, purchasing luxury cars and expensive houses to compete against friends, and from spending enormous amount of money on birthdays, engagements, and weddings. Allow me to illustrate to you two touching and wonderful stories of two outstanding fathers who made tremendous sacrifices to put their children to college.

The first one is the story of a father and son (a story I got from a good friend). The father worked in an old flour mill for all of his life. The father had a pickle jar sat on the floor beside the dresser in the bedroom. When the father got ready for bed, he would empty his pockets and toss his coins into the jar. The little boy was always fascinated at the sounds the coins made as they were dropped into the jar. They landed with a merry jingle when the jar was almost empty. Then the tones gradually muted to a dull thud as the jar was filled. He used to squat on the floor in front of the jar and admire the copper and silver circles that glinted like a pirate's treasure when the sun poured through the bedroom window. When the jar was filled, the father would sit at the kitchen table and roll the coins before taking them to the bank. Taking the coins to the bank was always a big production. Stacked neatly in a small cardboard box, the coins were placed between the father and son on the seat of the father’s old truck. Each and every time, as they drove to the bank, the father would look at his son hopefully. "Those coins are going to keep you out of the textile mill, son. You are going to do better than me. This old mill town is not going to hold you back." Also, each and every time, as the father slid the box of rolled coins across the counter at the bank toward the cashier, he would grin proudly "These are for my son's college fund. He will never work at the mill all his life like me." Both the father and son would always celebrate each deposit by stopping for an ice cream cone. The son always got chocolate. The father always got vanilla. When the clerk at the ice cream parlor handed the father his change, he would show to his son the few coins nestled in his palm. "When we get home, we'll start filling the jar again." The father always let his son drop the first coins into the empty jar. As they rattled around with a brief, happy jingle, both the father and son grinned at each other. The father said, "You will get to college on pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters. But you will get there. I will see to that." The years passed, and the young boy finished college and took a job in another town. Once, while visiting his parents, he used the phone in their bedroom, and noticed that the pickle jar was gone. It had served its purpose and had been removed. A lump rose in his throat as he stared at the spot beside the dresser where the jar had always stood. His father was a man of few words, and never lectured him on the values of determination, perseverance, and faith. The pickle jar had taught the young boy all these virtues far more eloquently than the most flowery of words could have done. When the young man got married, he told his wife Sarah about the significant part the lowly pickle jar had played in his life as a little boy. In his mind, it defined, more than anything else, how much his father had loved him. No matter how rough things got at home, the father continued to doggedly drop his coins into the jar. Even the summer when the father got laid off from the mill, and the mother had to serve dried beans several times a week, not a single dime was taken from the jar. To the contrary, as the father looked across the table at his son, pouring ketchup over his beans to make them more palatable, he became more determined than ever to make a way out for his son. "When you finish college, Son," he told his son, his eyes glistening, "You will never have to eat beans again - unless you want to." The first Christmas after granddaughter Naomi was born, the young couple spent the holiday with their parents. After dinner, the grandparents sat next to each other on the sofa, taking turns cuddling their first grandchild. Naomi began to whimper softly, and Sarah took her from grandfather's arms. "She probably needs to be changed," Sarah said, carrying the baby into the parents' bedroom to diaper her. When Sarah came back into the living room, there was a strange mist in her eyes. She handed Naomi back to grandfather before taking her husband’s hand and leading him into the bedroom. "Look," she said softly, her eyes directing her husband to a spot on the floor beside the dresser. To their amazement, there, as if it had never been removed, stood the old pickle jar, the bottom already covered with coins. The son walked over to the pickle jar, dug down into his pocket, and pulled out a fistful of coins. With a gamut of emotions choking him, he dropped the coins into the jar. He looked up and saw that his father, carrying Naomi, had slipped quietly into the room. Their eyes locked, and the son knew his father was feeling the same emotions he felt. Neither one of them could speak. This story really touched my heart and truly it must have touched your hearts as well. We should never underestimate the power of our little actions. With one small gesture we can change the life of our children by being responsible fathers before it is too late.

The second one is the story of a wonderful father who invested a lot of time for his first two sons to go to college. Actually, he is my father and I am a professor at West Virginia University. My brother is a successful professor at Cornell University. Our father never went to school. He used to know the numbers, but he could not read and write at all. He had a strong passion for education and made a solid school plan for his sons when we were very young. He was a small scale farmer with meager farm income. Obviously, he needed help in the farm, tilling the land and attending the herd. He needed help to weed the field and feed the draft animals. He needed help during harvesting, plowing and at other critical time periods. We were not around to help our parents in the farm because our father did not want us to come to the farm and help. Instead he wanted us to go to school and to study diligently at home. One day at home, he made us sit in front of him and told us, “I did not get the opportunity to go to school like you. I can not change my life now; it is too late. I am a farmer. Farming is my job; it is my life and I am proud of it. I will do my job well and you do yours too. But farming is not your job. Remember that ‘The man who removes a mountain begins by carrying away small stones’. You have to go to school now and do well in school because that is your job for now. After acquiring a good education, you will have a good job with decent salary. I want you to be Doctors, Engineers, or acquire any professional career of your interest. I want you to be good role models to your brothers and sisters and good citizens to your country. I am not sending you to school so that you will send me money later. I want you to do nothing in the farm, but to go to school because I want you to have a better life than ours. You need to remember that the only person who is educated is the one who has learned how to learn and make a difference in life. I do not want anything from you, neither your time now nor your money later. If there is anything I want from you is the satisfaction I expect to get when you are successful in school, at work, and in life. You should know that I am proud of you now and I will be proud of you then.” Our father who was a simple farmer was our role model and together with our mother brought a miracle in our lives. Our parents were proud of all of us and we are proud of our parents. They invested a lot of time and wisdom in building the foundation of our lives. Our father not only explained and demonstrated to us the value of education, but as a great teacher and father, he inspired us to be successful in life. It is not only what he did for us, but what he has taught us to do for ourselves that made us successful human beings. We all need to appreciate our parents and cherish their sacrifices. Those parents who care well for their children’s education and welfare should be honored and respected, for these only gave life, those the art of living well.

It should then be a common knowledge that nothing we do for our children is ever wasted. Our children may seem not to notice us and they may seldom offer thanks to what we do for them, but what we do for them is never wasted. Sooner or later they will appreciate our love and care for them and our reward is their success in life. It is evident that many of us can not afford to prepare ourselves the financial obligation for our children’s college education, or many of us may not have any idea as to how to set ourselves into the idea of exploring the various sources of financial aid. But we have many Eritrean scholars and academicians who have enormous capabilities, knowledge and experience to lead and guide families with children and direct youth on how to prepare for college education. At the same time, if we have formidable Eritrean communities, we can all together make unique differences in the lives of our children by creating some kind of networking on college education and communication media among the Eritrean youth and communities. All of us should put ourselves in each other's lives to impact one another in some way or another. Where there is cooperation among us there is always victory. The success for cooperation has never relied on uniformity of political opinion, but on love and care for children.

Constructive comments about this article can be forwarded to: tgebrem@wvu.edu. Thank you and God bless us all!